Like a fish

My priest has asked for the following information on Facebook. Facebook. Ugh. So, a blog post instead.  Questions in bold: Anybody should be able to answer these questions! Please describe your former beliefs. Use multiple sheets of paper if necessary.  My beliefs were the apostles creed with a big caveat on the One Apostolic Catholic church part with the redefinition of all that to mean anyone calling themselves Christian. I believed God had wrath on humanity that was poured out on Christ at the cross, and if you didn't believe, that wrath still was on you. I believed that one you were saved you were always saved, and that anyone who claimed to be saved and acted bad wasn't really saved to begin with. I believed in the Great Apostasy, but it was 1500 years not the 1800 years as reported by Joseph Smith. Please describe the good things in your former beliefs. This would involve practices, doctrines and the culture. I was (am) Trinitarian. I believ...

When I was looking for a new church in Texas, I was sick of all the compromises I was seeing all around. Not sin so much, I have sinned and it has always been that men sin. As long as there is repentance things can go on. The thing that bothered me was women clergy. I was raised to be a good feminist so it wasn't that I thought they couldn't do it, it is the question of what changed that now it is ok, when it wasn't before? This brought the most important question,  "who sez?" Who says that this is ok all the sudden?  Who has the right to tell Joel Osteen to shut up? The answer I was always given, and gave, is the Holy Spirit. But who speaks for the Holy Spirit? I have been convinced that I knew what He said but was proven wrong. So it's not me. Many claiming to speak for him said women clergy was just spiffy and 2000 years of Christian practice was wrong. So really,  no kidding, who gets to say? I watch too much YouTube. But I started to notice that the mos...

When you make a big change in life, maybe you should explain to yourself and others why you did it. No one but me cares but if you are reading this I invite you to point out errors in the comments. And by error I don't mean disagreement. My search begins with looking for a new church after moving back to Texas. We visited several of the nearby churches like the kind we normally have attended. There were several threads of thought going through my head like worldliness, authority and authenticity. Historically I come from a family raised in the church of Christ, a very small conservative denomination that doesn't use musical instruments. My parents left that church when I was a child and went to its split off denomination the disciples of Christ. So I was raised in a very liberal church which I loved because of summer camp. We moved a lot so I was always in a new school, but summer camp was always in the same place with the same people. So church was a source of continuity an...

Since this is the weirdest election of my life, I think it is time for a party realignment. The two parties really seem out of touch with their bases. It seems the Republican party is a coalition of three different constituencies. Social Conservatives Libertarians Big Business (Chamber of Commerce types) The Democrats are: Labor Blacks Licentious party Those coalitions are often very uncomfortable. Blacks don't support gay marriage, and libertarians and social conservative often clash. The gap in my knowledge is just what percentage each group is. I could see a realignment where the social conservatives, blacks and labor could easily coexist and big business, licentious and libertarians could coexist. Who would dominate would be on open question. 

In the nineteenth century, Marxism was created as a Utopian scheme so that workers could live in a paradise. The thought was that once the bourgeoisie was overthrown the workers would be happy. Now, we are all looking forward to the robots being the workers and humans are the new bourgeoisie. Is the nervousness about the singularity a fear that a robot Marxism will arise and spoil the whole show?  

I have been playing with gold prices. If you price the federal debt in gold it has been declining for 10 years. This is, I think a result of the floodgates at the fed being open so long. We are monetarizing the debt for quite a while. Our money is quickly becoming worthless.

I believe in Jesus because He is the Truth, not because of any utility derived from the lifestyle of following Him. Having said that, if Christianity is true, then it should match the universe batter than any alternative world view. With that in mind I want to explore the implications of the Black Swan and the Christian. Taleb was raised a Christian but as far as I can tell he isn't one now. He seems to aspire to being a Stoic. I think he would probably disagree with my analysis presented here. As I see them, his main are something like this: You cannot predict anything. The bell curve is a lie and reality follows power laws. Maximize your exposure to positive black swans and minimize your exposure to negative ones. Humans apply a narrative incorrectly to explain random events. But obvious fragility can show future disasters are on the horizon, just not the exact time and severity. Luck explains a lot of success and failure. Go to a lot of parties. Th...

I have just finished " The Black Swan ." I am formulating some thoughts on what implications it may have for Christians.

American Thinker: Impersonating a Victim : "We have now all heard the verbal abuse Gates hurled at the officer -- who was called to protect his property. Gates theatrical reaction to the situation: 'This is what happens to a black man in America!' What? Returning to your posh residence from your trip to China and having a neighbor look out for you by reporting suspicious behavior in your upper-crusty neighborhood and having a white public servant come check on your place for you -- is that what 'happens' to you in America, Dr. Gates? Swing low sweet chariot." I love this!

Mark Steyn: Obama knows 'stupidly' when he doesn't see it | gates, professor, black, racism, sgt - Opinion - OCRegister.com : "A black president, a black governor and a black mayor all agree with a black Harvard professor that he was racially profiled by a white-Latino-black police team, headed by a cop who teaches courses in how to avoid racial profiling. The boundless elasticity of such endemic racism suggests that the 'post-racial America' will be living with blowhard grievance-mongers like professor Gates unto the end of time."

davidwarrenonline.com - ESSAYS ON OUR TIMES : "The outrage expressed, today, at the very existence of Sarah Palin, not only by progressive Democrats but by urbane 'establishment' Republicans, is in many ways the product of this shift. Increasingly, I find, people on the left simply cannot accept any right-wing view as legitimate. The mere fact it can be so labelled puts it beyond the pale." This is too true.

As large retailers shut doors, warehouse-like buildings sit unused � Knoxville News Sentinel : "A former Walmart in Carlinville, Ill., was converted to a church, but not before a legal battle from the city. Mayor Robert Schwab said retail space is at a premium in the city of about 6,000, so when Walmart announced it was building a new supercenter in town, community leaders were hopeful the old facility could be turned into new retail space. Instead, Walmart sold the 50,000-square-foot building to the Carlinville Southern Baptist Church in 2007. 'Nothing against churches, but the city loses, the county loses and the school district loses sales tax and property tax as a source of revenue,' the mayor said. 'It was probably the largest building available in probably the whole county,' Schwab said. 'There was a lot of interest in it but Walmart found a willing buyer that gave them no competition at all.'"

I sent my Dad this link, http://iowahawk.typepad.com/ iowahawk/2009/07/miller-time. html He responded: Great stuff! On down in the lineup was a 1932? Model B Ford. It's the one with the red and black pleated upholstery. The thing didn't say itwas a '32, or a model B, but I know my 32 model Bs. My great aunt Emma had one, but it was faded greenish and didn't shine very much. Joanne and I--can't remember if Linda was old enough to go to school at the time--would ride with her to school as she lived right across the driveway from us and was the teacher, janitor, playground supervisor and lunchroom monitor all in one. She had six grades in six rows of increasingly larger school desks all in one room, talk about your cutting the costs of education! Anyway the old model B was already ancient in 1947. I can recall that the floorboards were kind of partly there and the exhause would leak up into the car. The old faithful four cylinder L-head made some kinda noise, especial...

Here is a story. VOA News - Obama Ends Ghana Visit : "U.S. President Barack Obama says Africans must take more responsibility for wiping out poverty, war and disease on the continent. In a speech to the Ghanaian parliament, the president said we need - what he described as - a new moment of great progress."

Armed and Dangerous � Blog Archive � In which I am thankful for Barack Obama’s election : "Americans are still out there eight months later buying firearms like mad - and I think this can be nothing but good in the longer term. Let me count the ways: 1. More firearms in civilian hands means a larger constituency to oppose restrictive firearms laws and regulations. 2. More firearms in civilian hands means more people carrying concealed, depressing crime rates. 3. More firearms in civilian hands means the balance of coercive power shifts in favor of the people and against government, making some of our nastier potential futures just that much less likely. 4. Higher demand means more firearms-manufacturing capacity in the future, leading to lower prices and a likelihood that the previous three virtuous effects will be sustained."

Been a while since I posted. Been glued to the election, but what else can you say?

Camels and Rubber Duckies - Joel on Software : "By comparison, look at BEA. Big company. Big price tag. The price alone means almost nobody has experience with their product. Nobody comes out of college and starts a dotcom using BEA technology, because they couldn't afford BEA technology in college. A lot of other good technologies have doomed themselves with high prices: Apple WebObjects was irrelevant as an application server because it started at $50,000. Who cared how good it was? Nobody ever used it! Anything made by Rational. The only way these products get into the hands of users is with an expensive full-frontal sales pitch. At these prices, the sales pitch is made to the executive, not the techie. The techies may well actively resist bad technology with good sales that the executives force down their throats. We have lots of FogBugz customers who have high-priced Remedy, Rational, or Mercury products sitting on the shelves after investments of well over $100,000, beca...

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