Wonderful Matters

This morning the news interview show Meet the Press featured Ron Paul. I'd imagine all those who consider themselves true blue dye-in-the-wool conservative Constitutionalists were paying close attention, for this was the first real mainstream press exposure for Paul to elaborate on his quasi-libertarian perspective. What I saw was a typically deft and well-prepared Tim Russert tear apart Paul, who appeared to hem and haw even in-and-around what many see as quite principled positions: dramatic reduction of the scope of government, ending the income tax, limiting our business in the affairs of other nations, and so forth. Paul's problem is that the Agency of Cain must by nature behave in unprincipled ways. The primary functions of the World System's government are all murderously deceitful. Countless times in the past Paul bellowed about his disdain for that perfidy in very concrete ways. Russert was ready, pounding him with it and demonstrating that you can't be fully p...

I'd written a lot about how major league baseball was a scam because of free agency and something I've called "competitive duplicity," the idea that the powers-that-be in baseball set things up so that certain teams are guaranteed to have an unfair competitive advantage to ensure the continued viability of the game. (Just as a heads up, some of my work is at EEEEEE! a San Francisco Giants fan site run by a very good friend, and my seminal writing is here .) Recently lots has come out about major leaguers using steroids. Indeed just today former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte confessed he's used them, but not to build up but to better heal from an injury. I think the first thing that I feel, being a Giants fan and, as such, a great admirer of Barry Bonds, is how silly the whole asterisk thing is now. I was hurt every time someone would blithely speak about an asterisk next to Bonds home run achievements, and then laugh as though they were all above it. Now it is re...

A wonderfully hilarious opinion piece appeared in the Los Angeles Times today by humorist John Kenney, "Mr. Christ and Me." It was the absolutely perfect satirical exposition of the political Catholicist's devotion to his own Jesus. You may know that recently Republican Mitt Romney felt the need to rationalize his "faith" as being quite within the mainstream. For most of U.S. history Mormonism has existed as a pariah religion outside the boundaries of Americanist religious culture, but over the past many years it has gone to great lengths to market itself as being as normal as any other Christian faith. The silliness of Romney's attempt can only truly be seen through the eyes of Scripture, which cuts so incisively that nothing is left to doubt. One of the things it divides quite nicely is the World and the Kingdom. The Kingdom's monarch is none other than Jesus Christ. He reigns supremely, majestically-- and still considers His own as beloved children of...

I am just beginning a new book called God's Continent about the expanded presence of Islam in Europe. I'm just at the first few pages, and right out of the gate there was an interesting note about Muslim's designs on a religiously moribund Europe. It is simply that Muslims plan to "outbirth" the people of other religions, notably Christianity. It is now well-known that Europe's birthrate has leveled off and in some places has gone negative. Lots can be said about that, but the thought I had about this outbirthing strategy of Islamic dominance was this: Children do follow closely the things parents do, even if those things are quite ungodly. One could easily say that Islam is an ungodly religion, and in many ways it is, but much of the derision of it comes from those not in the Muslim God Club. They are zealots for the "Not-Islam" religion, and that religion is often quite Catholicist. One very good thing about Islam is that it is very law-oriented....

In the previous post I posed the following question: "Why do we care so much about what people think of who we are, authentically, but don't give God the same consideration?" The idea is simply that we are quite interested with what others think of us. No, I don't believe for a second anyone who says they can say with 100% verity "I really don't care what others think." They're lying. By definition, for anyone to have any meaningful relationship, who one is must be expressed to another in some way. Otherwise we are all just schizophrenics. Given this quite veritable premise, why then don't we give God the same consideration and at least work a bit to understand who He really is, if we hope to have relationship with Him? Many will say "Who are you to say who He is? How presumptuous." When these kind of people--and yes, there are many of them--say this, they are actually saying "I am a fool, for I presume that one cannot know who Go...

Speak of idolatry these days and you're sure to get a bemused glower, as if you just said Jack and the Beanstalk was a true story. "We're past that stage of human development" the thinking goes, mostly because we've all been told by World operatives who know that all that supernatural stuff is just personal interpretation. They should know, they tell us enough times on television and in the classroom. How could we not get it? Yes, silly me, "God" is just a mental construct, and idolatry just some backward religious nut's arrogant claim that his god is better than some other guy's. Only thing is... What if God were really God in real reality? And He actually had at least a spittle of interest in what people did with their understanding of Who He Is? Why do we care so much about what people think of who we are, authentically, but don't give God the same consideration? Yes, God will do just fine even with those who blow Him off. He's God, H...

Two items from Slate webzine caught my eye and are quite worth a mention. The first, from a discussion group colleague, is a current series on the concept of "lawbreaker tolerance." It is a fascinating look at the limitations of government in light of its responsibility to prosecute with summary execution. That work is here, "American Lawbreaking" by Columbia law professor Tim Wu . The second, a piece from a few years ago I came across in a search, is another man's take on the fact that there are so many Jesuses out there that knowing the real one is quite a puzzle. That is, unless you merely go talk to the real one. Alas, most people don't like talking to the real one because they fear the shocking discovery that He is so different from theirs. That piece is here, "Jesus Christ, Choose Your Own Personal Savior" by Chris Suellentrop . The two Slate pieces are intertwined in more ways than you may think. Even though government finds many ways, how...