Judging Us
It is frightening to think of going to Judgment and being found lacking. We know how often we’ve fallen short. We know the sins we’ve committed and the good that we haven’t done. After analyzing our shortcomings, we realize that God’s mercy is the only thing between us and the eternal pain we deserve. We […]
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
Yesterday’s column shows that what most of us see as “waste” is wealth for those in a position to profit from excessive and unnecessary spending. The above graph shows our own immorality as much as it shows the venality of those who use legislative power to prey on us. What keeps us from fighting the […]
Why Things are the Way They are:
Simply being in Congress allows a person to become almost three times richer through investments than those who are not “serving” in Congress. As the graph, from carpediem.com, shows, Representatives have been getting richer from investments at an accelerating rate since 1986. The divide portrayed in the graph shows another divide, the disconnect between those […]
Why is Abortion Favored by The Bureaucratic Party?
The Bureaucratic Party needs votes to stay in office. They get them from the poor-made-angry who are willing to exchange their votes for access to goods and services that are provided for voting for those with the power to dole them out. But, if there get to be too many poor people for the Intake […]
The Nature of the Two Party System
America’s political Parties are Democrats and Republicans. Other names are used in other countries. Whigs, Tories, Labor, Greens, etc. are all used to define political groups. They are disguises for the true nature of political parties. There is, in every nation, a Bureaucratic Party and an Anti-Bureaucrat Party. The Bureaucratic Party usually controls the opposition […]
Today’s Reading, from Wisdom: 13, 1-9. Offers an Example of Catholic Fundamentalism’s Approach to Reading Scripture:
” . . . though they seek God and wish to find him. For they search busily among his works, but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair. But again, not even these are pardonable. For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, […]
You Can Take it With You.
A relative of mine had a real problem accumulating things. When she passed on, her house and garage were filled with things. There was enough furniture, crates of collectibles, and antiques to fill a moving van. Before she passed on, she heard that, in fact, she could take it with her. “Hire someone with a […]
If You Can Stand it, More on the Map.
I was so disturbed by recognizing vanity at work in buying the map for showing off to visitors that I forgot something. This particular map, from the 1550s, would have been a good investment. One seller of old maps and Atlases reported the consecutive sales of an old Atlas that he’d tracked since 1948. That […]
Confession: Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa. (My Fault, My Fault, My Most Grievous Fault.)
Yesterday’s column was written even as its author had two bids in on an auction of old maps from the 1500s. The maps were made by Munster, and encapsulated the view of the world in his century. They were drawn and published a few decades after Columbus and others had provided some charts of their […]
Double Hmmm. The Word in the Blank.
It’s important to read Luke, 16:15 when we’re examining our conscience. “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.” We should remember that advice when we want something. Usually, when we think of buying something, or […]