Aug 2010
Front Page | Sep 2010

Our Sin-Cosmos Demise

29/August/2010 13:30 Filed in: Oikos Thoughts | Web News
“Nobody likes me, everyone hates me, I guess I’ll go eat worms!”

When I was just a wee lad, when forced to sit on my mother’s knee, because of one of my passing pouting natures, I was given the opportunity to repeat with her the above little limerick.

Until I began this article I did not know there were a number of verses in various renditions from both the United States and the United Kingdom. Nowhere have I found a reliable source for the history of this song.

A week ago Friday when I headed to Spokane for a yearly family reunion, I had Monday’s article, “The Specialization Racket” somewhat outlined. With a couple of introductory paragraphs, utilizing president Barack Obama as the world’s and history’s best political specialist, I believed I could knock it out in no time. I also had a topic for Wednesday’s Weekly Column.

As the weekend progressed nothing seemed to come together and for reasons unrelated to Wonder Springs, on Monday I needed to go to the headquarters of the Spokane Indian tribe in Wellpinit. Having not been to Wellpinit in recent memory, I decided to drive in through the back road, which crosses the Spokane River at the Little Falls Dam and then heads upland to the Spokane Reservation headquarters.

The reservation occupies a southern portion of Steven’s County bordering the Spokane River on the south, Lake Roosevelt (Columbia River) on the west, and Chamokane Creek on the east, a bastardized rendition of the name for the Tshimakain Mission that was established in 1838 on the east side of the stream. To the north the boundary seems to be a literal line in the sand to provide a buffer zone between the reservation and the upper reaches of the fertile Colville Valley. The topography of the reservation is essentially alluvial sand and gravel deposits created between the Pleistocene ice sheet and glacial Lake Columbia. What that means in a practical basis, is that the reservation is basically open Ponderosa Pine forest with vary little arable land.

After finishing my business at the tribe’s headquarters, I headed out the main highway, leaving the reservation at Ford. By then I was thoroughly depressed. My thoughts were basically, if you want to see the future of the United States under a system of government handouts and transfer payments just visit your nearest Indian reservation — but be sure to get a few miles beyond the casino, if one exists. (The Spokane Casino is located near Chewelah, along US 395 on tribal allotment land in the Colville Valley.)

The forcing of North America’s indigenous peoples, onto essentially worthless land, began about 180 years ago under the direction of president Andrew Jackson (1829 - 1837). When the Spokane Reservation was established some forty years later, you could probably eke out a living by hunting and gathering, with ample stocks of salmon from the Spokane River. Today, with no salmon, because of Grand Coulee Dam, you would quickly starve to death, without the government subsidies.
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Morning & Evening for August 29th - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

28/August/2010 21:15 Filed in: Morning & Evening

Morning
Have mercy upon me, O God.
Psalm 51:1

When Dr. Carey was suffering from a dangerous illness, the enquiry was made, "If this sickness should prove fatal, what passage would you select as the text for your funeral sermon?" He replied, "Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.'" In the same spirit of humility he directed in his will that the following inscription and nothing more should be cut on his gravestone:--

WILLIAM CAREY, BORN AUGUST 17th, 1761:
DIED - -
"A wretched, poor, and helpless worm
On Thy kind arms I fall."

Only on the footing of free grace can the most experienced and most honoured of the saints approach their God. The best of men are conscious above all others that they are men at the best. Empty boats float high, but heavily laden vessels are low in the water; mere professors can boast, but true children of God cry for mercy upon their unprofitableness. We have need that the Lord should have mercy upon our good works, our prayers, our preachings, our alms-givings, and our holiest things. The blood was not only sprinkled upon the doorposts of Israel's dwelling houses, but upon the sanctuary, the mercy-seat, and the altar, because as sin intrudes into our holiest things, the blood of Jesus is needed to purify them from defilement. If mercy be needed to be exercised towards our duties, what shall be said of our sins? How sweet the remembrance that inexhaustible mercy is waiting to be gracious to us, to restore our backslidings, and make our broken bones rejoice!

Evening
All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.
Numbers 6:4

Nazarites had taken, among other vows, one which debarred them from the use of wine. In order that they might not violate the obligation, they were forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine or strong liquors, and to make the rule still more clear, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor even to eat the fruit either fresh or dried. In order, altogether, to secure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil. Surely this is a lesson to the Lord's separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes, but even its spirit and similitude. Strict walking is much despised in these days, but rest assured, dear reader, it is both the safest and the happiest. He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the sea-bank in Holland lets in the sea, and the gap speedily swells till a province is drowned. Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul, and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins. Moreover, as the Nazarite who drank grape juice could not be quite sure whether it might not have endured a degree of fermentation, and consequently could not be clear in heart that his vow was intact, so the yielding, temporizing Christian cannot wear a conscience void of offence, but must feel that the inward monitor is in doubt of him. Things doubtful we need not doubt about; they are wrong to us. Things tempting we must not dally with, but flee from them with speed. Better be sneered at as a Puritan than be despised as a hypocrite. Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own which are more than a sufficient recompense

Brute says American leadership's meddling with everything is the root of the problem.

27/August/2010 08:56 Filed in: Et Tu Brute'

Taking a brief hiatus

25/August/2010 09:52 Filed in: Weekly Column
There will be no column this week, for we are taking a brief hiatus to get a little perspective on the way forward. There seems to be bad news everywhere, especially with the economy. The popular prescribed ways forward all rely on some sort of miraculous improvement of past human failures.

The president made the Ground Zero mosque a national issue that has only intensified, bringing into question even Obama’s Christian confession. Historic Christianity is about the completed work of Jesus Christ and not about liberation theology, social justice, and especially about some heretical concept of collective salvation.

Wonder Springs exists as a virtual reality alternative to a real Death Valley. To the best of my knowledge, Glenn Beck is the only person, with a broad based secular following, who has proclaimed America’s problems to be faith based. But it also follows that way too many people think the solution to the country’s and world’s problems stem from human enlightenment and not with God. In that darkness the economic bottom is still a long steady decline away, made bearable only by the grace and mercy of the Almighty.

Because our angst is a God induced redux of the Divine Providence of the founding of the United States, solutions will come as we look to God created natural laws and common grace. The problem is that nobody is actually willing to look at those natural laws as they might relate to human institutions. Therefore what play these principles get in the media either relates to self centered individualism, or described by the Social Darwinist elites, as primitive, knuckle dragging, myths of the religious stupid folk.

These last few weeks have been as financially stressful as I can remember in over twenty years. The ability to increase the Wonder Springs influence demands some changes not only financially but they also relate to location. All of this demands resources that are not now apparent other than a miracle from God. So until our next installment we shall try to live expectantly in that hope.

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Special Brute who says humans need to look beyond their wishful thinking

25/August/2010 09:50 Filed in: Et Tu Brute'

Morning & Evening for August 22nd - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

21/August/2010 20:40 Filed in: Morning & Evening

Morning
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.
Song of Solomon 5:8

Such is the language of the believer panting after present fellowship with Jesus, he is sick for his Lord. Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from Him they lose their peace. The nearer to Him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to Him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigour, and joy, for these all depend on constant intercourse with Jesus. What the sun is to the day, what the moon is to the night, what the dew is to the flower, such is Jesus Christ to us. What bread is to the hungry, clothing to the naked, the shadow of a great rock to the traveller in a weary land, such is Jesus Christ to us; and, therefore, if we are not consciously one with Him, little marvel if our spirit cries in the words of the Song, "I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell Him that I am sick of love." This earnest longing after Jesus has a blessing attending it: "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness"; and therefore, supremely blessed are they who thirst after the Righteous One. Blessed is that hunger, since it comes from God: if I may not have the full-blown blessedness of being filled, I would seek the same blessedness in its sweet bud-pining in emptiness and eagerness till I am filled with Christ. If I may not feed on Jesus, it shall be next door to heaven to hunger and thirst after Him. There is a hallowedness about that hunger, since it sparkles among the beatitudes of our Lord. But the blessing involves a promise. Such hungry ones "shall be filled" with what they are desiring. If Christ thus causes us to long after Himself, He will certainly satisfy those longings; and when He does come to us, as come He will, oh, how sweet it will be!

Evening
The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Ephesians 3:8

My Master has riches beyond the count of arithmetic, the measurement of reason, the dream of imagination, or the eloquence of words. They are unsearchable! You may look, and study, and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Saviour than you think Him to be when your thoughts are at the greatest. My Lord is more ready to pardon than you to sin, more able to forgive than you to transgress. My Master is more willing to supply your wants than you are to confess them. Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus. When you put the crown on His head, you will only crown Him with silver when He deserves gold. My Master has riches of happiness to bestow upon you now. He can make you to lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside still waters. There is no music like the music of His pipe, when He is the Shepherd and you are the sheep, and you lie down at His feet. There is no love like His, neither earth nor heaven can match it. To know Christ and to be found in Him--oh! this is life, this is joy, this is marrow and fatness, wine on the lees well refined. My Master does not treat His servants churlishly; He gives to them as a king giveth to a king; He gives them two heavens--a heaven below in serving Him here, and a heaven above in delighting in Him for ever. His unsearchable riches will be best known in eternity. He will give you on the way to heaven all you need; your place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks, your bread shall be given you, and your waters shall be sure; but it is there, THERE, where you shall hear the song of them that triumph, the shout of them that feast, and shall have a face-to-face view of the glorious and beloved One. The unsearchable riches of Christ! This is the tune for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of heaven. Lord, teach us more and more of Jesus, and we will tell out the good news to others.

Brute' says it may be a long side to the economic bottom

20/August/2010 06:10 Filed in: Et Tu Brute'

A Redux Independent

18/August/2010 08:10 Filed in: Weekly Column
Things are currently happening in America, that aren’t supposed to happen. At least that is what we have been told for at least a generation. We have been given the story line, if we just do our job, make reasonable expenditures to keep the economy moving, and pay our taxes, tomorrow will be better than today. That reality was said to be true not only for us, but also our children and grandchildren.

That reality has changed, and in our gut, we believe that it will be a long time, if ever, before we will be able to accept again as truth, that desire for security. The question then forms in our minds, “Were we lied to, or were our leaders just stupid?”

For the most part, I think the truth is that most of our leaders were just as ignorant as we were. Probably because they were so immersed in the political culture, they were even more enthusiastic. Sadly they also believed that what they were doing was responsible for our successes and hence, just as we did, never really looked beyond the security of their comfort zones.

Now the tendency is to look to those from the immediate past, blame them for the present, and make some boastful predictions that the future will make us more secure. All we need to do is to have hope that this will become true. However hope and faith are not forces, but realistic beliefs in external factors that will bring about our desires. During this last generation, but always present in the human psyche, we have replaced God as that redemptive ability, with our human governance and our materialism.

Coping with these changes I am in the process of redefining a lot of things in my life, and trying to figure out how I can adapt and provide positive guidance to others. In our sound bite — talking points world, one needs to have a handle that fits. Some concise description that you can defend, both in the sound bite world, but also, if need be, as the depth of your being. The descriptive term I finally have settled on is a Redux Independent.
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Special Report: The War Racket

16/August/2010 08:29 Filed in: Special Report | Oikos Thoughts | Web News
“Al Qaeda has won the War on Terror!”

“But we haven’t had a successful large terrorist attack on America since 9-11.”

As they say in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, “Ya sure, you betcha! At what cost, monetarily, in regard to the lives of our troops, and the limitations of our personal freedoms?”

Putting this in a realistic perspective, it is reported that there are 100 Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, and maybe a few hundred more in Pakistan. Then there are bunches in Yemen and Somalia and scattered in other countries around the world. There are probably equal numbers in western democracies and in Islamic and developing countries. If we were to qualify only those who have both the desire and the where with all to directly attack the United States or European countries, adding in similar groups, the worldwide total of Islamic jihadis is probably less than 10,000.

So what does it cost to keep us safe from these hordes of wild extremists?

According to Wikipedia based on numbers from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, (SIPRI) the United States leads the world in military expenditures at $660 billion, followed by China at about $100 billion, France at $64 billion, the United Kingdom at $58 billion, and Russia at about $53 billion. You have to go to the SIPRI website to find out what their definition of what is a military expenditure.

One could assume from their definition that the $660 billion figure includes the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan, but not Homeland Security and various transfer payments within and without the United States, not directly tied to the military expenditure definition. Since Wonder Springs has no way of quantifying that number we will take an educated guess of perhaps $440 billion, bringing the yearly total to a trillion bucks. That makes our War on Terror assessment equal to $10 million per really bad guy — per year.
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Morning & Evening for August 15th - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

14/August/2010 17:00 Filed in: Morning & Evening

Morning
Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide.
Genesis 24:63

Very admirable was his occupation. If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is sweet indeed. Isaac found Rebecca while engaged in private musings; many others have found their best beloved there.

Very admirable was the choice of place. In the field we have a study hung round with texts for thought. From the cedar to the hyssop, from the soaring eagle down to the chirping grasshopper, from the blue expanse of heaven to a drop of dew, all things are full of teaching, and when the eye is divinely opened, that teaching flashes upon the mind far more vividly than from written books. Our little rooms are neither so healthy, so suggestive, so agreeable, or so inspiring as the fields. Let us count nothing common or unclean, but feel that all created things point to their Maker, and the field will at once be hallowed.

Very admirable was the season. The season of sunset as it draws a veil over the day, befits that repose of the soul when earthborn cares yield to the joys of heavenly communion. The glory of the setting sun excites our wonder, and the solemnity of approaching night awakens our awe. If the business of this day will permit it, it will be well, dear reader, if you can spare an hour to walk in the field at eventide, but if not, the Lord is in the town too, and will meet with thee in thy chamber or in the crowded street. Let thy heart go forth to meet Him.

Evening
And I will give you an heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26

A heart of flesh is known by its tenderness concerning sin. To have indulged a foul imagination, or to have allowed a wild desire to tarry even for a moment, is quite enough to make a heart of flesh grieve before the Lord. The heart of stone calls a great iniquity nothing, but not so the heart of flesh.

"If to the right or left I stray,
That moment, Lord, reprove;
And let me weep my life away,
For having grieved thy love"

The heart of flesh is tender of God's will. My Lord Will-be-will is a great blusterer, and it is hard to subject him to God's will; but when the heart of flesh is given, the will quivers like an aspen leaf in every breath of heaven, and bows like an osier in every breeze of God's Spirit. The natural will is cold, hard iron, which is not to be hammered into form, but the renewed will, like molten metal, is soon moulded by the hand of grace. In the fleshy heart there is a tenderness of the affections. The hard heart does not love the Redeemer, but the renewed heart burns with affection towards Him. The hard heart is selfish and coldly demands, "Why should I weep for sin? Why should I love the Lord?" But the heart of flesh says; "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee; help me to love Thee more!" Many are the privileges of this renewed heart; "'Tis here the Spirit dwells, 'tis here that Jesus rests." It is fitted to receive every spiritual blessing, and every blessing comes to it. It is prepared to yield every heavenly fruit to the honour and praise of God, and therefore the Lord delights in it. A tender heart is the best defence against sin, and the best preparation for heaven. A renewed heart stands on its watchtower looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Have you this heart of flesh?

Brute' says if humans want to understand the changes now happening in their world - they need to look to natural law.

13/August/2010 09:20 Filed in: Et Tu Brute'

Persons with common sense need not apply

11/August/2010 10:16 Filed in: Weekly Column
Our new Wonder Springs Intelligence email address just received a memo from an undisclosed source that said that there is going to be a Top Secret shakeup of all federal government agencies and departments. This will include the White House and Defense Department, as well as Congress and the Federal Reserve. Accompanying this Top Secret document was a draft of a help wanted advertisement that will run later this month in leading newspapers and other established media outlets.

Uncle Sam needs your help! As you know things are not going like we hoped here at zenith of human enlightenment, so we are going to reorganize the totality of the Federal Government to better serve the needs of the American People. In that illumination we are currently seeking the smartest and the brightest from across the nation to help us create this positive change. Accepted applicants must demonstrate that the potential hireling be a team player with unquestioning loyalty to failed ideas of the progressive era. Formal education from the top universities is required, as well as extensive professorial experience at the same — a definite plus. Those hired will not have any tangible human leadership skills, but possess oratory skills to pontificate about things they know nothing about ad infinitum-nauseam. Special Note: Those persons with possessing something once called common sense — need not apply. Except for that Your United States Government is an equal opportunity employer.

Hallelujah! Soon, very soon we are going to change the country and the world. Now there will be those detractors out there that say this employment opportunity will not exist once the Republicans take back both the house and the senate in the November midterm elections. However our anonymous Top Secret source has indicated that this employment advertisement passed muster with the Republican Party establishment, which signifies the whole of the nation’s political class are on board with this extensive governmental restructuring.

Of course the management here at Wonder Springs is concerned that nothing at all will change due to this restructuring of the status quo, we question if fact this restructuring is nothing but a form of a noise generating attempt to keep the American people in their current mushroom status. (Maintain the people in the dark and feed them horse manure.)

Thankfully for over a year now we have heard the president say that we are “back from the brink” economically. So the major question that no one seems to be asking, “Are we still just peering into the chasm or have we changed directions and headed what looks to be a endless barren plateau?”
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Special Report: Super-Bug Stupidity

09/August/2010 10:53 Filed in: Special Report | Oikos Thoughts | Web News
We have all heard of the Super-Bugs, or drug resistant germs, living in hospitals and other medical facilities that have mutated or evolved to such a point that our antibiotics are unable to control their populations. The fizzled pandemic of swine, or H1N1 flu was thought to be potentially a Super-Bug virus that could devastate human populations around the world.

There is so much to worry about in today’s world we really don’t have time to worry about these Super-Bugs germs unless we are in a medical facility where their threat is imminent. But if we broaden our perspective just a little we can use these Super-Bugs as a model, or an illustration, of what the social diseases that are infecting our world, creating the unfolding chaos we see virtually everywhere today.

Think for a moment about the American Congress as a Super-Bug. How about George W. Bush’s worldview as a Super-Bug, or Barack Obama’s Chicago political operations? If you ask their supporters without adding the complete context of what is really happening, they would probably say, “Cool we need more of that!”

Of course if everyone thinks what they believe, is far more Super-Bug than anyone else’s Super-Bug, you end up with chaos and the whole system collapses. This is the Cloward and Piven strategy that no one in the general population had heard of until Glenn Beck so kindly brought it to our attention. The real problem is however, you don’t need to be a Super-Bug to collapse the system, all you really need to do is to withhold the medicine and the epidemic will take care of itself. That is provided you have created the proper simple or monoculture environment.

The major strategic problem is not collapsing the system, but rebuilding a new economic, or human ecosystem on the ashes of the old. Super-Bugs don’t have the genetic code to pull it off. They can’t make it work in a natural world full of virtually unlimited human diversity. Of course we are not talking about true genetics, but really just environmental conditions, such as in a clean environment such as a hospital, a university, or a political body that allows this Super Bug intellectual cancer to exist in the first place.
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Morning & Evening for August 8th - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

07/August/2010 20:36 Filed in: Morning & Evening

Morning
They weave the spider's web.
Isaiah 59:5

See the spider's web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite's religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Custom, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets. A spider's web is a marvel of skill: look at it and admire the cunning hunter's wiles. Is not a deceiver's religion equally wonderful? How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer so well the purpose of gold? A spider's web comes all from the creature's own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God. But a spider's web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the servant's broom, or the traveller's staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrongs to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the besom of destruction begins its purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz., that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord's house: He will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed for ever. O my soul, be thou resting on something better than a spider's web. Be the Lord Jesus thine eternal hiding-place.

Evening
All things are possible to him that believeth.
Mark 9:23

Many professed Christians are always doubting and fearing, and they forlornly think that this is the necessary state of believers. This is a mistake, for "all things are possible to him that believeth"; and it is possible for us to mount into a state in which a doubt or a fear shall be but as a bird of passage flitting across the soul, but never lingering there. When you read of the high and sweet communions enjoyed by favoured saints, you sigh and murmur in the chamber of your heart, "Alas! these are not for me." O climber, if thou hast but faith, thou shalt yet stand upon the sunny pinnacle of the temple, for "all things are possible to him that believeth." You hear of exploits which holy men have done for Jesus; what they have enjoyed of Him; how much they have been like Him; how they have been able to endure great persecutions for His sake; and you say, "Ah! as for me, I am but a worm; I can never attain to this." But there is nothing which one saint was, that you may not be. There is no elevation of grace, no attainment of spirituality, no clearness of assurance, no post of duty, which is not open to you if you have but the power to believe. Lay aside your sackcloth and ashes, and rise to the dignity of your true position; you are little in Israel because you will be so, not because there is any necessity for it. It is not meet that thou shouldst grovel in the dust, O child of a King. Ascend! The golden throne of assurance is waiting for you! The crown of communion with Jesus is ready to bedeck your brow. Wrap yourself in scarlet and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day; for if thou believest, thou mayst eat the fat of kidneys of wheat; thy land shall flow with milk and honey, and thy soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. Gather golden sheaves of grace, for they await thee in the fields of faith. "All things are possible to him that believeth."

Brute' says in the current environment the job drought will continue

06/August/2010 08:22 Filed in: Et Tu Brute'

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Wonder Springs

04/August/2010 09:00 Filed in: Weekly Column
Today I am going to tell you what is wrong with this country, and the world for that matter. Then I am going to tell you again, and then perhaps again in another way, and then we will be done.

We humans everywhere have lost our sense of wonder. If the rest of the animals on this earth, perhaps the plants too, could, or can wonder, they would wonder what is wrong with the human species, they have lost their sense of wonder about everything, about life.

Truly we bitch and moan, belittle and bloviate, prophesy and procrastinate, worry and fret, whine and are stubbornly unhappy about a whole world of trivial things. Things, things everywhere, so much so that thing obsession has become both our religion and our way of life. To make matters worse we no longer have the time to wonder why things seem so wrong, when we hoped that things would be so right.

The good news is that wonder springs from the totally mundane. But the thing we need to learn again is that wonder is only possible because of the existence of the transcendent. We have become so materially blessed that we really are of no earthly good. In the process we have become so self centered that we have lost our sense of faith in anything we cannot physically touch. Oue recent problems stem from the reality that we are limited beings and just can’t touch an infinite world without some help and we are too insecure to even know were to ask for help.

We can be thankful however that wonder springs from death and the impossible.

And God said, “I wonder what kind of world those humans will create if I make them in my image?”
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Red Sky Morning

02/August/2010 11:00 Filed in: Oikos Thoughts | Web News
For some reason, early Friday morning I awoke, and normally my first instinct is to look out the window to see if it is still dark, then check the clock. What I saw outside was an unusual pink glow in the eastern sky. When I looked to the clock it was about 5 AM. I confirmed the window view again and decided this morning’s red sky was so intense I needed to go outside and check it out further.

Out on the deck, to the South the sky was almost black, like it was about to rain heavily. To the North it was just and overcast gray, but that eastern red sky morning was still very intense, illuminating the summit of the mountain across the river, were the sun will eventually rise to the point where direct rays will hit my place about two and a half hours later. I stood there watching while the red slowly return to the normal predawn grayness. I decided to go back to bed.

As I lay there I began to think about the old sailor’s rhyme, “Red sky at morning — sailors take warning. Red sky at night — sailors delight.” It had been very dry and hot for the last few weeks, so I thought a little, or a lot of rain would be a relief, but I mused that natural red sky weather report may also be a reality report on our economic future.

Most of the procrastinators and the pundits have stated that the recession is over but slow economic growth seems to be with us for some time. Even FED chairman Bernanke coined a now oft repeated “unusually uncertain” term to describe this current morning. When you look towards the sky further to the South however, you hear the dark sky reports of the bad weather of a stormy future — of maybe even a double dip recession.

I guess what that all means is that all the people who make the big bucks and those who don’t, really don’t have a clue to what the future holds, and that is especially true in the unnatural world of global economics. It seems to me, if professionals, who spend their whole life trying to figure out the economy, should be able to do a better job.
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