So Barney Frank gets re-elected. Barney Frank, “the colonoscopy gone bad. The proctological carbuncle that refuses to subside.” In spite of the fact that he, as much as anyone, is responsible for causing us all to implode inside the housing bubble. People do know that, don’t they? That he led the brigade that forced banks to make loans that were destined to default that caused the housing bubble that encouraged banks to find ways to make money anyway because that’s their job, that undermined the entire financial system.
And Jerry Brown? Californians do remember don’t they that Jerry and his father Pat, for 16 years, led California down the entitlement path that has destroyed the state? I liked him. I remember how noble he was, refusing to be chauffeured, declining the governors mansion in favor of a third story walk up (or something like that). Now here was a governor with the welfare of the people at heart. However, the Brown governorships could be the poster child for Thomas Sowell’s Unintended Consequences. Their attempts to cure all of California’s social ills resulted in a social ills boom. You get what you pay for.
Meg Whitman was blasted for suggesting that Jerry Brown was responsible for California’s failed school system, but it was Brown who, when Proposition 13 passed opted to start supporting schools with state funds which eventually undermined the constitutional mandate for local control of schools.
Even the Terminator could not blast through the stronghold of excesses at Sacramento, moderate their lack of fiscal discipline, mitigate their indenture to union bosses, restrain their unsustainable entitlement programs that the Browns set in motion.
Maybe salt sea zephyrs cripple the judgment, soften the brain. But why, then, is Florida not affected? Perhaps warm salt sea zephyrs are less noxious. Hmm. I think I’ll apply for a $4,000,000 federal grant to study the issue.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
A Confluence of information
It’s strange how sometimes unrelated bits of information fall into place like pieces of a puzzle. For me, this week, it was a National Geographic story about the happiest people in the world, a rabbi’s enlightening discussion of the story of the Tower of Babel, and the Sunday school class’s examining of several Bible verses that counsel us to be alert, to wake up.
Dan Buettner, a National Geographic researcher recently revealed that people who live in Denmark and Singapore are the happiest people in the world. The investigation conducted by the staff revealed that, however dissimilar the countries are, the reasons for the inhabitants’ sense of well being were similar, feelings of contentment and safety.
Danes are happy because they are well taken care of, all of them, from cradle to grave. Danes pay some of the highest tax rates in the world, but in exchange the inhabitants lack for nothing. Because the system is so efficient, Danes feel "tryghed" -- the Danish word for "tucked in" -- like a snug child. The rigid penal code in Singapore makes it an unlikely place to evoke such happiness. The death penalty in Singapore is invoked more often and for a wider variety of crimes than any other nation on earth. Murderers, drug dealers, tax evaders and the like are quietly hanged in the pre-dawn hours of perhaps every other Friday, on average about 34 people a year. The process is shrouded in secrecy, but as a result the inhabitants of Singapore feel safe.
All such studies rank The United States much lower on the happiness scale. Perhaps we still believe what Benjamin Franklin said: “He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither.” Perhaps we listen more carefully to lessons of history.
The Bible is largely a history of God’s struggle to preserve individual freedoms. I remember hearing the story of the tower of Babel as a child and thought that God was angry at Nimrod for worshiping the tower and, by confusing their languages, scattered the people as punishment. I recently heard a Jewish Rabbi explain the story from a different prospective. The peoples were scattered, not as punishment, but as a blessing. Nimrod had brought together all the peoples of the known world, and under his encouragement they built the tower, a stairway to heaven.
According to the rabbi, the bricks the Israelites used to build the tower were actually symbolic of the Israelites themselves. God prefers people to be individuals like stones, not identical like bricks. So, in Genesis 1:6 Jehovah says, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language.” To save them he confused their languages and scattered them. He had created each one of us for a special purpose and through our walk with God we discover and accomplish that purpose. When we allow ourselves to be gathered like sheep in safety and comfort, we find no need of God and, as a result, lose our sense of purpose.
The Israelis slipped almost willingly into bondage several times throughout their history, and many other civilizations have repeated the pattern of destruction, from bondage to individualism to great courage to liberty to abundance, then from abundance to complacency to apathy to dependency and finally back to bondage. The leaders of Rome destroyed individuality by the same method. Their influential people knew that if they provided their citizens with their bread and circuses, made them comfortable and amused, the leaders could maintain their power base and insure their wealth. Nero said, "Let us tax and tax again. Let us see to it that no one owns anything!” Every leader further enmeshed the citizens into a sense of dependency. Eventually the country was buried under a bureaucracy that stifled all freedoms.
The Israelis traded their freedoms for security. Rome was lulled to sleep by bread and circuses. China was held in bondage by England’s generous supply of opium. The Danes like being safely tucked in. The people of Singapore are willing to sacrifice freedom for safety. America, however, might be taking Paul’s advice. In his letter to the Romans he said, "The night is far spent; the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light" (Rom. 13:11,12).
Dan Buettner, a National Geographic researcher recently revealed that people who live in Denmark and Singapore are the happiest people in the world. The investigation conducted by the staff revealed that, however dissimilar the countries are, the reasons for the inhabitants’ sense of well being were similar, feelings of contentment and safety.
Danes are happy because they are well taken care of, all of them, from cradle to grave. Danes pay some of the highest tax rates in the world, but in exchange the inhabitants lack for nothing. Because the system is so efficient, Danes feel "tryghed" -- the Danish word for "tucked in" -- like a snug child. The rigid penal code in Singapore makes it an unlikely place to evoke such happiness. The death penalty in Singapore is invoked more often and for a wider variety of crimes than any other nation on earth. Murderers, drug dealers, tax evaders and the like are quietly hanged in the pre-dawn hours of perhaps every other Friday, on average about 34 people a year. The process is shrouded in secrecy, but as a result the inhabitants of Singapore feel safe.
All such studies rank The United States much lower on the happiness scale. Perhaps we still believe what Benjamin Franklin said: “He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither.” Perhaps we listen more carefully to lessons of history.
The Bible is largely a history of God’s struggle to preserve individual freedoms. I remember hearing the story of the tower of Babel as a child and thought that God was angry at Nimrod for worshiping the tower and, by confusing their languages, scattered the people as punishment. I recently heard a Jewish Rabbi explain the story from a different prospective. The peoples were scattered, not as punishment, but as a blessing. Nimrod had brought together all the peoples of the known world, and under his encouragement they built the tower, a stairway to heaven.
According to the rabbi, the bricks the Israelites used to build the tower were actually symbolic of the Israelites themselves. God prefers people to be individuals like stones, not identical like bricks. So, in Genesis 1:6 Jehovah says, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language.” To save them he confused their languages and scattered them. He had created each one of us for a special purpose and through our walk with God we discover and accomplish that purpose. When we allow ourselves to be gathered like sheep in safety and comfort, we find no need of God and, as a result, lose our sense of purpose.
The Israelis slipped almost willingly into bondage several times throughout their history, and many other civilizations have repeated the pattern of destruction, from bondage to individualism to great courage to liberty to abundance, then from abundance to complacency to apathy to dependency and finally back to bondage. The leaders of Rome destroyed individuality by the same method. Their influential people knew that if they provided their citizens with their bread and circuses, made them comfortable and amused, the leaders could maintain their power base and insure their wealth. Nero said, "Let us tax and tax again. Let us see to it that no one owns anything!” Every leader further enmeshed the citizens into a sense of dependency. Eventually the country was buried under a bureaucracy that stifled all freedoms.
The Israelis traded their freedoms for security. Rome was lulled to sleep by bread and circuses. China was held in bondage by England’s generous supply of opium. The Danes like being safely tucked in. The people of Singapore are willing to sacrifice freedom for safety. America, however, might be taking Paul’s advice. In his letter to the Romans he said, "The night is far spent; the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light" (Rom. 13:11,12).
My Quest
Today I am starting on my second quest. About a year ago I dedicated my mornings to a 1 year plan for reading the Bible chronologically. I did it. Much to my surprise, I stayed with it. Today I am starting on a thematic program. This time, however, I plan to use the readings as springboards for commentaries.
My first reading Daniel 11:36-12:13 establishes again why it is that kingdoms fall, why great nations destroy themselves. We become so self-satisfied that we“ have no respect for the gods of {our}ancestors.” Daniel 12, the second reading is Daniel’s prediction of the end times. I remember discussing this passage with April, my Jehovah’s Witness friend. She lead me to several passages that determined quite convincingly was Daniel’s “time, times, and half a time” meant. I need to refresh my memory.
Lynne was quite disturbed by the reading of I John 4 when he says, “Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.” She felt that love should not be limited to loving their Christian brothers and sisters, we should love everyone. I thought perhaps that the implication was that all of us, are recipients of God’s prevenient (sp?) grace, whether we know it or not, God is with us.
My first reading Daniel 11:36-12:13 establishes again why it is that kingdoms fall, why great nations destroy themselves. We become so self-satisfied that we“ have no respect for the gods of {our}ancestors.” Daniel 12, the second reading is Daniel’s prediction of the end times. I remember discussing this passage with April, my Jehovah’s Witness friend. She lead me to several passages that determined quite convincingly was Daniel’s “time, times, and half a time” meant. I need to refresh my memory.
Lynne was quite disturbed by the reading of I John 4 when he says, “Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.” She felt that love should not be limited to loving their Christian brothers and sisters, we should love everyone. I thought perhaps that the implication was that all of us, are recipients of God’s prevenient (sp?) grace, whether we know it or not, God is with us.
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