Thomas Kinkade

There could be a lot said about 'ol Tommy boy but I won't go into all of it here. Really I just wanted to say that I think his paintings display an amazing misuse of energy. Every one of those windows are lit up. Now if they are using electricity then they must have buried lines because you never see them. And if they are using candles then they are using an enormous amount of them to generate this much light. Also, several of the cute little homes in these paintings have more than one chimney (like the one above), which based on their location, I would say that those homes are really energy inefficient. Another explanation for all the light in the windows could be that all the homes are on fire. That would explain the “extra” smoke that I’ve seen in some of the paintings.

Paco and Estaban

Paco and Estaban came and visited a few months back and I snapped this picture of them. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these two stalwart gentlemen Paco is on the right and Estaban is on the left. They don't come very often and it was a real treat to see them again. I initially thought they had an overgrowth of chest hair but then it was explained to me that it was in fact the hair from the under belly of a wooly mammoth. They recently killed one in an effort to save a small village in Guatemala. Tragically they were only able to save half of the village due to timing delays caused by over land travel (their donkey had another flat). The rest of the mammoth was given to the poor to ease their suffering. They were extremely grateful for Paco and Estaban’s sacrifice and diligent call to duty and they ate like kings for quite some time. Eventually P & E left and those villagers gave the mammoth bones to a museum in the States and now they are filthy rich.

Always at the ready for a quick photo, Estaban snapped this beauty while defending the village.

It’s all in the timing

It’s all in the timing.

Douglas Wilson has said, “The only difference between a nice salad and garbage is the timing.” I tend to agree with him. I bring this up to introduce the topic of marriage. Some enter into the search for their spouse with the “soul mate” mentality. This is, bluntly stated, a bunch of sentimental crap. Not only is there not a verse in the bible to support such tripe, but I am also unaware of any biblical concept that would support it. Now, I am willing to be wrong in the matter and if someone knows of some biblical support then please enlighten me. The bible is more free than those who are looking for “the one” would purport. There are some basic biblical principles to choose a spouse and once the person passes this then it is basically that individual’s choice. And praise God, because I can at least attain His goals. What I have noticed over the years is that modern evangelical women are looking for a man who walks on water, can make gallons of “grape juice” when needed, and can “meet all their needs” and thankfully this person has already come and to their disappointment this person will not be marrying them individually.

If someone was to die on the idea of there really being “the one”. Then I could agree with them only by acknowledging that “the one” is the one whom they are married to. People don’t walk around with this title on their back and unless we are Mormon there isn’t any “burning in the bosom” when we think we have encountered such a person. It seems as though modern Christians are more comfortable having a list of rules and check boxes for finding either a career or a spouse, and the wonderful thing is that God has given up a great deal more liberty in these areas.

I have come to the realization that the spouse whom I am looking for is not perfect (besides I’m not perfect and if we are to be together for so long we ought to at least match). Thanks be to God, because I would be single a lot longer than I already am, but I am looking for one who is on the path to perfection. I think that is the key. The perfect one has already come and therefore no one will be marrying that person. We ought to be about finding the one who is on the same path of righteousness and is near the place we are. This latter part is just for simplicities sake. There really aren’t any hard and fast rules that I know of.

For men, they ought to be reading a chapter a day out of Proverbs, since that is specifically written for men. They should be about marrying a women of wisdom . . . and not foolishness. They both are saying similar things and they are both attractive so the simpleton ought to be on his toes.

For women, they ought to follow their fathers. Those men have been given for their care and protection, and these fathers have once been that guy who wants a spouse so they are in a unique position to offer the best advice and council to their daughters.

“Prepare your work outside, and make it ready for yourself in the field: afterwards, then, build your house.” Proverbs 24.27
This gets at the essence of timing . . . for me. I don’t apply this as a hard and fast rule for all people, but I do for me. (Although, unless convinced otherwise I plan on passing this concept on to my children if God ever blesses me with them). I think there is critical advice here. Specifically for men, I think one ought to have their education taken care of and a means of providing for a family before they start that family. And a family starts with a wife. This does not entail the highest level of education but really the most basic means of provision. See the concept is that God, out of his mercy, gives us ultimate freedom. There is a lot of catch up necessary to fully communicate the ideas here but I don’t want to write that much so for now you must be content with unqualified statements. Now some faithful Christian’s may quarrel with me on this verse and they may actually convince me otherwise, but I don’t think it likely.

It has been stated to me that I am a bit strange in my concept of finding a spouse. And this is stated mostly because I refuse to employ the classic dating model to my spousal finding. In my estimation a person is nowhere more fake than on a date. Where else are you going to have all your i’s crossed and t’s dotted? Or is that the other way around? See I’m not cut out for dating. Besides once you convince that person that you never fart, never have food stuck in your teeth, or think the way they do they are in for a rude awakening once they find out that the jig is up. Why not save everybody the trouble and go through the father and get this all out in the open to begin with. Besides it is more difficult to pull the wool over the eyes of the father because they have been you before. (Not that you want to pull any wool, but that is the essence of the dating model. You aren’t quite yourself. Best foot forward at all times). And I think this concept holds true for women as well. Go through the father it makes things much easier and less heart wrenching. I have seen many women go at it alone and they are extremely miserable and constantly wondering where a good man is to be found.

This isn’t a complete explanation of my thoughts on this subject but as a lasting comment I do think it the responsibility of the father to have in mind the potential bridegroom. They have a great deal of power at their fingertips and they ought to walk in wisdom. They not only have the duty before God to protect their daughter but also, out of wisdom, the duty to deal with this other man with respect.

Oh, it's a disease

A rather long quote from G.K. Chesterton and some commentary from me.

“But the point is that a story is exciting because it has in it so strong an element of will, of what theology calls free will. You cannot finish a sum how you like. But you can finish a story how you like. When somebody discovered the Differential Calculus there was only one Differential calculus he could discover. But when Shakespeare killed Romeo he might have married him to Juliet’s old nurse if he had felt inclined. And Christendom has excelled in the narrative romance exactly because it has insisted on the theological free will. It is a large matter and too much to one side of the road to be discussed adequately here; but this is the real objection to that torrent of modern talk about treating crime as disease, about making a prison merely a hygienic environment like a hospital, of healing sin by slow scientific methods. The fallacy of the while thing is that evil is a matter of active choice whereas disease is not. If you say that you are going to cure a profligate as you cure an asthmatic, my cheap and obvious answer is, “Produce the people who want to be asthmatics as many people want to be profligates.” A man may lie still and be cured of a malady. But he must not lie still if he wants to be cured of sin; on the contrary, he must get up and jump about violently. The whole point indeed is perfectly expressed in the very word which we use for a man in hospital; “”patient” is in the passive mood; “sinner” is in the active. If a man is to be saved from influenza, he may be a patient. But if he is to be saved from forging, he must be not a patient but an impatient. He must be personally impatient with forgery. All moral reform must start in the active not the passive will.”
-G.K. Chesterton

I won’t get into the aspects where Chesterton props up “free will” as a viable option in dealing with people’s salvation but the concept that I think he is trying to bring out is the aspect of people’s ability to have control over their actions. I put in this whole quote to give some background to what I thought was the most important part. And that important part is treating “crime as disease”. I attended and graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Psychology and from this I have learned all the enemies’ plays. One of those plays is what Chesterton is hitting here, and that is calling sin a disease. Modern, and for that matter all modes of psychology, employ methods that try to lessen sin. Sin is actually a taboo word, and more so in those who claim to use “Christian” psychology.

If you are talking to or in some way dealing with a “Christian” psychologist you ought to ask them; “What makes this Christian psychology?”. The answer is surprising in that there really isn’t one. All they can come to is that they are Christian and in some way this comes through. And to a certain extent that is true. Since we live our theology if they are truly Christian then their brand of counseling would employ some biblical aspects, but since they are building upon a foundation of humanism (psychology) then at the root of what they are giving is poison. They would be better off being honest and say that they are just like everyone else than to claim that they are trying to be Christian.

I worked at a place for three years that claimed to use “Christian” psychology and sadly they didn’t see what I was talking about. For instance, if a news reporter were talking about teenage mothers who are crack-heads it would be really startling if when turning over the story they said, “Well Jim, what these kids really need is repentance. Back to you Jim.” That is of course the furthest thing from reality. The blame either gets shifted from the children to the parents from the parents to society and from society to education. In the end education becomes the savior and Christ is left out. Psychology, in an amazing step to leave Christ completely out of the whole mix, says that this sin of immorality is really just an “addiction” and the person can’t help it anyway. Therefore since it is an addiction, and that is just a slow step towards disease, then the person needs “counseling” and medication to supplement the “chemical imbalance”.

This is all just another rehash of the Garden of Eden where Eve blames the serpent for causing her to sin, then her husband also Adam, in a dramatic display of manliness, blames his wife of causing him to sin and then ultimately God. Blame shifting has been our way since Genesis chapter 3 and it is no different now, except now we blame our parents, genes, environment, social economic status, minority status, “addictions”, or _______. Yet despite all this God still holds us responsible for our sin and we will have to give an account for every idle word we have spoken. And at the same time this is true, God, in his infinite mercy has sent his son and out of His love for us he has died for us so that we will be made free. So, in the end God is more compassionate than we are and at the same time more just than we are.

There's a lot of white out there

This is an amazing photo of Ross Island. It is the Island I lived on while in Antarctica. The island is the white thing in the lower right hand corner of the photo. I mean left hand corner. That was funny for me. The more dense white part is the permanent iceshelf and the less dense is the temporary ice shelf. The more dense white stuff in the center of the photo are enormous icebergs. They were at one time called B-15 but since it broke apart it has other names like B-15a, B-15b and B-15c. It can be complicated but I think if you think about it hard enough it will make sense. McMurdo Station, the place I lived, is located on the small arm that is pointing straight down from the island. It is at the very tip. If you look close enough you can see me waving. And if you can see me I'll tell you how I took the photo.

Opa

Here is a good picture of my Opa (my mother's father). He would band birds to track various data such as migration patterns and what-not. He did have a particular method of catching the birds which was quite amazing. You see he was raised by mockingbirds for a time and he learned how to imitate other birds calls. Now as an adult and living as a human he would call the birds into his area. He would be in the forest in his secret lare and from this postition he would woo the bird into perfect spot to make his grab. Then when the barometric pressure was correct he would just reach out and grab the bird, ofcourse, this was done very quickly. It would be so quick infact that the bird would only know that he was at one moment sitting contently on a branch and the next in the strong clutches of a slightly angry looking German man. He would then carry the bird around a while and then band them. He did this a great deal and finally one of them became the band "The Byrds".

The Right Privilege for Roads

I read this just before posting it and on the whole I would say that I agree with what I wrote. I apparently was pretty upset about all this stuff.

The Right Privilege for Roads

I am against highways and other ‘post roads’. The words ‘post roads’ are the words put into the Constitution that are the slippery slope that the Federal government uses to give justification for building all these roads you see today. Actually, they used these words when people actually cared whether or not their government was following the rules placed upon it. So, I’m against the government owning anything and I’m against anything having to do with ‘eminent domain’ laws. They are just a way for the government seize whatever they want without concern for the rights of those who happen to own that land or property.

The government shouldn’t own anything for multiple reasons but one would be that the government is not objective. When we say that the government is seizing property who are we talking about, the governor? Mayor? President? No one really knows, but we do know that Mr. Johnson no longer owns a part of his field because a new highway is being built on it.

I’m against the State and Federal imposed Driver License too. That’s right, it’s a Driver License (so those stickers on those gas pumps don’t scare me because they threaten to take away my Driver’s License which I don’t even have). You need one of these to drive on a road that you helped pay for. I pay taxes to build these roads and I pay for a Driver License to drive on these roads. And if I’m caught driving on one of these roads without my Driver License I may receive a ticket for not having one. This does not make sense. We don’t do this with other things we buy.

Take for instance a kitchen appliance. You buy a crock pot from the store, get it home and before you can use your new appliance you have to mail in a ticket stub with an accompanying fee to get a computer code that allows you the ‘right’ to now use the appliance that you purchased. Now you have your crock pot and every seven years you have to update your computer code, with an additional fee, so that you can maintain your right to use your crock pot. We have become the pig that just follows the slop bucket around the field. At first the farmer put the bucket at the top of the hill and we walked the distance to get to the slop. But now the farmer has us going over the hill, across the ravine, up the ladder, and through the flaming hoop to get at the same slop bucket.

Private industry is the only way to make this justified. Because I believe that the government does not have the right to own land and therefore no right to build roads I think that if Mr. Johnson sees an opportunity to make some money he ought to build a road on his land and charge people for the use of his road. Makes sense. However, we no longer live in that time.

We are also told repeatedly that driving a car on the road is a privilege and not a right. Do you consider the use of your crock pot a right or privilege? You bought the thing (either a kitchen appliance or a road) so isn’t it your right to use that which you bought? I’m against the idea of the government building roads but since we are in this point in history where this type of thing happens and no one cares then I wish that they would not make multiple fees for the use of that which I already have the right to use. Does the government have the ‘right’ to my money? No!, but it appears that once my money is stolen through unjust taxes I have lost the right to use that which my stolen money has bought. Now to use that which my money has bought I have to buy something else to give me the ‘privilege’ to use what is already mine. So the playground bully steals my money buys a comic book and now I need to give the bully more money to have the ‘privilege’ to read (but not take as my own) this comic book.

Now if I don’t show the tyrants my birth certificate I can have my ‘privileges’ revoked. I have a foreign birth certificate and the only things most people in Missouri can read is my name and birthdate so hopefully this won’t cause a new set of hoops to jump through.

MODERN SLAVES

I have received some posts that suggest that I should post a new blog. I have taken a slight hiatus from blogging simply due to time. However, I have found some half-thoughts on my computer that I will begin posting. Here is one of those now.

MODERN SLAVES

I have a theory that the Second War for Independence in 1860, otherwise known as the War Between the States, was fought for different reasons than what the government school I went to told me. They went through a lot of pomp and show to explain how much Lincoln loved the black man and how the South hated him. So, the montra went something like this; “The war was fought to free the slaves”. However, I think the war was fought for far different reasons and contrary to the war being fought to free the slaves I think it was to make all men of the states slaves.

I come to this conclusion by looking at the life of the typical slave. They had five things taken care of for them; healthcare from cradle to grave, food, clothing, shelter, and consistent employment (job security). Fast forward to the present and isn’t it funny that we modern slaves are clamoring for the same things. We want Massa’ Gov’ment to provide for us healthcare, food, housing and job security. I guess that is only 4 out of 5. Sorry, my fault, I guess we aren’t modern-day slaves afterall.