Monday, September 28, 2015

Audio: What Really Causes Global Depressions?

Austrian this, Keynesian that. Why should one embrace one over the other?

Kevin Swanson doesn't get into that, but he does say that our practical atheism is the reason why America is doing so badly nowadays.

Listen below.


It's true that Austrian economics is more in line with the biblical worldview, but what authority do Austrian economists stand on?

Mises and Rothbard.

In other words, men.

In the same vein, we have also embraced man's erroneous views of laws and economics -- that is why we will be in a depression.

Video: Rosaria Butterfield on Her Conversion from Lesbianism



Rosaria Butterfield used to live a lesbian lifestyle.

Now, I will spare those who are curious as to whether that means she was in the "gay-as-long-as-I-can-remember" camp. She was not. She got into it pretty late.

But all this means is that she connects with the thousands or millions of people who have embraced homosexual lifestyles post-high school or post-college.

Nevertheless, she is clear, insightful and has a heart for those in the LGBT community.

For one, she, like myself, is against reparative therapy.

In an essay, she puts it this way:
"This position contends a primary goal of Christianity is to resolve homosexuality through heterosexuality, thus failing to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and failing to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation. This heresy is a modern version of the prosperity gospel. Name it. Claim it. Pray the gay away."
She is right, and she is taking the biblical view.

My reason for rejecting reparative therapy comes straight from the Bible as well.
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:10-11 NIV)
Almost 2,000 years ago, people were, before the arrival of modern technology, dealing with homosexual attraction and having homosexual intercourse. And, by the grace and Spirit of our God, they were washed and sanctified from their sins -- sex-related or not. Notice the inclusion of all kinds of sins in the passage.

No doctors, except the Great Physician, were present.

No medical contraptions, no weird methods or instruments designed to make a gay person straight were used.

It's also worthy pointing out what comes next:
The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? (1 Corinthians 6:13-15 NIV)
God's power, the same power that lifted the Lord Jesus from the grave, will lift us also in the Resurrection.

She also makes book recommendations. I trust them.

One of them is Christopher Yuan's Out of a Far Country.

Wesley Hill's Washed and Waiting is another book she recommends. Wesley Hill was one of those gay people who at around age 5 or 6 knew they were different.

She also mentions The Art of Neighboring as a book she is currently working through.

While she doesn't recommend it, Kevin DeYoung's "What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?" has been recommended by a lot of people.

The Q&A is as good as the presentation, if not better. Watch the entire thing. It's worth it.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Christian Education vs. Non-Christian Education

I found this today. I've never been on this blog before:
Non-Christians believe that the personality of the child can develop best if it is not placed face to face with God. Christians believe that the child’s personality cannot develop at all unless it is placed face to face with God. Non-Christian education puts the child in a vacuum. In this vacuum the child is expected to grow. The result is that the child dies. Christian education alone really nurtures personality because it alone gives the child air and food.

A Christian Response to Atheism - Chapel @ The Master's College

I'm a Christian But I'm Totally Not... (BuzzFeed Parody)

Bill Bonner's Unique Point on the "Living Wage"

Image Courtesy of Getty Images
The point is at least unique to me. I've never heard any other free-market person make the following point about the "living wage":
Of course, a national living wage is absurd. It costs far more to live in Manhattan than in the Ozarks. And it is far less expensive to live with Mom and Dad than to have a place of one’s own.
But we are not so much concerned with the practical details as with the theory.
We have been told that the people who work at McDonald’s need to earn more. But what about those who write for the editorial pages? Perhaps they should earn less?
If well-educated, well-liquored, and well-paid employees can decide the wages of McDonald’s workers, surely the burger flippers should have the right to fix the wages of the chattering, meddling, and improving classes.
He goes on:
The do-gooders want to use other people’s money to raise the wages of the least well paid, but they make no mention of their own.
Nor do they even offer to pay more for their hamburgers so that McDonald’s can pay its workers more.
And what about the poor people who cannot find jobs at all?
If the minimum wage were raised, there would surely be more of them – either because McDonald’s could not afford to hire so many people at higher salaries or because it had replaced its minimum-wage employees with machines!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Video: Bill Bonner: Cash Shortage to Hit U.S.



Bill Bonner delivers a dire message in the calmest tone.

This is the most important story in the United States you have never heard of.

I sat through this entire thing.

It is worth it.

I promise.

Protect yourself.

Protect your family.

Watch the video.

Kevin DeYoung's Wisdom

Don’t settle for a superficial understanding. Read the primary sources. Get to know dead writers. Learn from them, and be honest about the mistakes and blind spots of your own tradition. ~Kevin DeYoung, The Neo-Anabaptists

Video: Scot McKnight: Have we misunderstood the meaning of 'Kingdom'?


"I think we already see in the gospels a pattern: and that is Jesus calls people to follow him unequivocally. His followers follow him and they fail. He rebukes them. He forgives them. They get back up and they follow Jesus again.
That's a pattern of obedience, discipleship, with moments of failure and forgiveness." ~Scot McKnight

Video: The Truth About Bernie Sanders

Get a free E-book on Bernie Sanders here.

[Editor's Note: Regular readers of this blog should this is part of the"Why You Should Not Vote For Bernie Sanders" series. 
The reason I am doing this is because a number of my (young) friends are falling for the rhetoric and promise of Democratic Socialism. It (often rightly) rails against big business It (almost) never rails against the government framework which made big business possible. 
It is embodied in the persons of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Unfortunately, they're both wrong.
My posts will be informed by the Thomas Woods' new E-book Bernie Sanders is Wrongother informed economic articles, and my personal reflection, except in cases where I find good videos, as was the case with the second post above.
This is Part 2 of many…and I mean many.]

Angelo Codevilla on America's Ruling Class

This one is a throwback...

But I kept forgetting the name of the author and so I finally decided to publish this on my site (if I haven't done so already), so I wouldn't forget again.

I actually saw the author in person, when he was speaking on a foreign policy panel, at the 2013 CPAC conference at the Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

Anyway...

This is an important essay.  It's always good to revisit from time to time.

Here's an excerpt:
Although after the election of 2008 most Republican office holders argued against the Troubled Asset Relief Program, against the subsequent bailouts of the auto industry, against the several "stimulus" bills and further summary expansions of government power to benefit clients of government at the expense of ordinary citizens, the American people had every reason to believe that many Republican politicians were doing so simply by the logic of partisan opposition. After all, Republicans had been happy enough to approve of similar things under Republican administrations. Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind.
Read the rest.

Monday, September 21, 2015

On Free Water, Free Tuition, Free Healthcare, Bernie Sanders, and Rand Paul

I was at an event last night and a speaker said something to the effect of "Only in America" -- or let's say under capitalism -- do they make you pay for something free like water, as she sipped her bottled water... 

… bottled water that has been contained with machinery, filtered, and bottled -- among a host of other things -- by human beings.

…bottled water that was at one time in a river, or lake, or mountain, or spring, or wherever they get water from (the beauty of the division of labor in free-market capitalism is that I don't have to know that stuff).

In part, she wanted specialized knowledge to be free.

Deer Park employees, among the many other water companies' employees, are people who wake up every day provide a vital product to the billions of people who chose not to be in the water business. Numbers of trucks which run on un-free gasoline deliver this vital source for life every single day to the market place.

Gone are the days of carrying a pail of water to the river, scooping up as much water as you can, and carrying it back to the hut village. Gone are the days of getting water from the well.

The water companies have gotten so good at this that they provide water in different sizes -- from little bottles that can fit in your palm, to bigger bottles that be put on water coolers; these bottles come in size swig, saturate, and submerge. Gone are the days of size pail and bucket.

They have gotten so good at it that water comes with flavor.

And yet they want this to be free.

Fine, I'll grant you, but only for the sake of the argument, that water is free. What I won't grant you is that the labor should be free. Further, I know that you won't either.

Much of that was my immediate thought but I didn't say anything. It wasn't the right forum. It would have taken the event over the allotted time. The only thing I thought in addition to that is that working for free involuntarily is what we used to call slavery. 

But I know what they mean: Whether it is free school or free water, advocates will say workers will get paid through taxes. But that only pushes the involuntary labor to the taxpayers.

Why should I involuntarily use my labor to pay for someone else's stuff?

That is an ethical problem for Democratic Socialists.

But I want to put another thorn in the side of Democratic Socialists.

Going back to the subject of water companies, why should someone like Coca-Cola, the Dasani water owners, be mandated by the government to operate a large part of their company for F-R-E-E.

Am I shifting definitions? Don't I know that Democratic Socialists would, through taxpayer dollars, pay a company to operate their water business.

Oh, so you want to get into subsidizing big businesses and corporations. Gee, I thought that was what you were protesting in the first place.

But let's take it one step further. Why should we think of only existing businesses as free providers of this vital product? Why not apply our thinking to future entrepreneurs? The little guy. Should the little guy provide this service F-R-E-E?

Should we subsidize the little guys future water business? Should he not operate by profit-and-loss to judge the success of his business?




Rand Paul had a similar experience.

He was asked a question about Bernie Sanders' solution to Social Security.

I like Rand Paul's answer. He admits up front that you are not going to like his solution. Furthermore, he gives the alternative: He can pretend like everything is okay and promise you everything you want and destroy the country in the process.

By destroying the country, he probably means destroying our dollar through hyperinflation. The Federal Reserve would have to create so much money that our dollar would become worthless.

Democratic socialists, like Bernie Sanders, would solidify our economic doom.

[Editor's Note: Regular readers of this blog should know that I was coming up with a "Why You Should Not Vote For Bernie Sanders" series. 
The reason I am doing this is because a number of my (young) friends are falling for the rhetoric and promise of Democratic Socialism. It (often rightly) rails against big business.  It (almost) never rails against the government framework which made big business possible. 
It is embodied in the persons of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Unfortunately, they're both wrong.
My posts will be informed by the Thomas Woods' new E-book Bernie Sanders is Wrong, other informed economic articles, and my personal reflection, as was the case with the first post above.
This is Part 1 of many…and I mean many.]

Bill Bonner enters the mind of Janet Yellen

Photo Courtesy of The Associated Press
And it is hilarious.

Impersonating Yellen, Bill Bonner sketches the thoughts running through her mind as she mulls raising interest rates.

He writes:
What if they say it’s my fault? What if they call it the Yellen Depression?
Oh, no… It’s not fair… It’s not fair… Boo-hoo… sob… sob… I should have stayed at Harvard. I’d have tenure. I’d have a nice pension. George and I could go the Martha’s Vineyard in the summer. It would be such a nice life.
That is from part one.

But there is also a part two.

There he writes:
"But if the economy is as healthy as I say it is, it isn’t going to be bothered by a quarter-point rate hike. And if it isn’t as healthy… and the rate hike throws it into a tizzy… then all those seven long years of ZIRP did zip for the economy and rates may as well be raised anyway, no?" (Janet smiles; she is pleased with her turn of phrase.)"
Read Part One...

And part two.

Video: Fiorina Claims She's Not Part of the "Professional Political Class"



Editor's Note: I am no longer a libertarian anarchist. 

When I was, I used the Center For Stateless Society's material for my intellectual edification all of the time. This C4SS video on Carly Fiorina is very eye-opening, but it is not an endorsement of libertarian anarchism -- left or right.

The critique in the video can be maintained by any libertarian minarchist -- Christian or secular.

For one, the video shows that Hewlett-Packard was long-time beneficiary of government privileges.

HP is a part of the military-industrial complex.

Intellectual property "rights" gave HP its marketplace advantage.

If Fiorina can't point this out, how can she truly be called a "free-marketeer"?

When it comes to approving or disapproving legislation dealing with intellectual property rights, which create artificial scarcity, how will she vote? Will she veto? Will she uphold intellectual property "rights"?

Picture Courtesy of the Getty Images
So even if she wasn't a lifelong politician, she still has benefited from the legislation of lifelong politicians.

If she doesn't understand that then there is at least one area of the economy which we can't expert her to advocate freedom.

Of course, I keep all of this in context with all of her competitors and what she proposes.

But based on her foreign policy views alone, as she voiced them on the September 16, 2015 CNN debate, I couldn't support her.

She is a war hawk. Pure and simple.

Don't believe me? 



David Stockman,  Director of Office and Budget Management under Ronald Reagan, cites Fiorina's own words from the debate and then breaks down her talking points, and then gives the real history of foreign policy that Fiorina, in all likelihood, is clueless about. 

Friday, September 18, 2015

Video: The Real History Of Slavery



One of the most profound points that Thomas Sowell makes is that those who cry the loudest about Euro-centric oppression of black Africans in fact have a Euro-centric view of the institution of slavery...for who would intentionally downplay the history of slavery?

He frames it much more clearly than I do above.

But the basic idea is that slavery existed far longer than emphasized. It has also affected more people -- whites -- than emphasized.

In an interview, Sowell points out that slavery exists as long as we have ancient documents. But that's only true if you discount the Holy Bible as a reliable historical document, which it is.

He also points out that very conservative religious people dreamed up the idea of ending slavery, people whom he says are the equivalent to today's "religious right." As he immediately says after pointing out that fact, that's very "politically incorrect."

He also points out that it took 18 centuries after the Lord Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount to abolish slavery.

Pick up his book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals"  from Amazon to read Sowell's unique insights on race.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Mike Huckabee: Declare a war on Alzheimer's, Cancer and other diseases

Last night, during the September 26, 2015 CNN Republican debate, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said that the U.S. should declare a war on Alzheimer's, Cancer, and other diseases.

Does he mean we should declare a war on Alzheimer's and cancer the same way we declared war on drugs, poverty, and terror?  We aren't winning those wars.

Can non-religious libertarians account for their libertarianism?

Please allow me to plagiarize myself without using quotation marks for a moment.

As I wrote in my last blog post, according to a poll on the Libertarian Party website, most self-identified libertarians in a recent poll are Christians.

Following Christians, the non-religious (including atheists and agnostics) make up the next largest group of liberty lovers.

In fact, those with no religion, which would include atheists and agnostics, accounted for 39 percent of those polled.

However, when you add Catholic, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and "Other Christians" together, Christians collectively make up 46 percent of the poll.

Those who identified "Other Christian" made up 24 percent of the poll.

Muslims made up the smallest sliver of the poll, coming in at 1 percent.
This is all well and dandy. But the real question is can atheists and agnostics and other non-religious people account for their libertarianism?

Do non-religious libertarians have the proper foundations to ground their libertarianism?

Given their materialism, why should they be libertarians at all? On secular grounds, why should they be libertarians over Marxists? Is it all a matter of preference on the materialistic view?

The best essay that I have read that answers these questions is one I came across earlier this year by Gordan Runyan in his essay "God - the Only Ground for Freedom (or, Why Secular Libertarianism is a Bust)."

Here's a good summary paragraph from the essay:
As I have shown in my book, Resistance to Tyrants, it is only Christianity, with its special revelation, a full Bible breathed out by the one living God, that is capable of supplying the philosophical and moral foundations that will allow human freedom to weather the storms and remain standing. Christianity is the basis for genuine libertarianism. Atheistic libertarianism is the contradiction. It only ever gets anything right by stumbling into a biblical principle now and again. It is the proverbial blind squirrel that manages to accidentally find a few nuts. 
Read the rest.

Most Libertarians are Christians (or have no religion)

According to a poll on the Libertarian Party website, most self-identified libertarians in the poll are Christians. Following Christians, the non-religious (including atheists and agnostics) make up the next largest group of liberty lovers.
According to a recent poll that the author took part in, most self-identified libertarians who took the poll are Christians or have no religion.

In fact, those with no religion, which would include atheists and agnostics, accounted for 39 percent of those polled.

However, when you add Catholic, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and "Other Christians" together, Christians collectively make up 46 percent of the poll.

Those who identified "Other Christian" made up 24 percent of the poll.

Muslims made up the smallest sliver of the poll, coming in at 1 percent.

Catholics made up the third largest portions of libertarians at 11 percent. And "Other non-Christian religions" and Baptists were almost matched at 6 percent and 5 percent respectively.

The wording of the poll was as follows: "I consider myself to be a Libertarian politically and the word that best describes my religion is."

It then gave the choice of what you see above.

18,906 had taken the poll at the time of the author's taking, which was around 8:00 p.m. on September 17, 2015.

It was located on the front page of the Libertarian Party website.

Editor's Note: The author is a Christian in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, or the Reformed Tradition.

K. Scott Oliphint on The Goal of Apologetics

Two things I enjoy about Dr. K. Scott Oliphint are his clarity in defending the Christian faith and his ability to refine his terms. The professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia made the following statements over the years.

"I have no interest of making theists of people because theists go where atheists go." ~Dr. K. Scott Oliphint in his discussion with Richard G. Howe and Jason Lisle on apologetic systems.

"When you are defending the Christian faith, you must defend the Christian faith. You are not simply defending some kind of generic theism." ~Dr. K. Scott Oliphint in his sermon Apologetics in Action: Acts 17:16-34

"The goal of a defense of Christianity is not to win the argument.  It's not an intellectual exercise so that we can show we someone we're smarter than they are. That's not what Paul is doing. The goal is the proclamation of the truth of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ in apologetics." ~Dr. K. Scott Oliphint in his sermon Apologetics in Action: Acts 17:16-34

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump Went Bankrupt Four Times



Carly Fiorina points out that Donald Trump invested other people's money and went bankrupt four times.

Donald Trump denied going bankrupt.

But a video posted by Reason.TV just moments before the exchange reveals that Donald Trump did, in fact, go bankrupt.

Trump biographer Jerome Tucille explains that "[Trump] doesn't do a deal unless other people are putting up the money. He's very good at losing other people's money and preserving his own."

Fiorina brought up his bankruptcy and investing habits in light of taxpayer money.

This is my interpretation of what she said, but I think Fiorina was making the connection that as president he will badly spend taxpayer money.

I think it's a good point. The great wall of America which Trump wants to build to keep immigrants out is an example of that. Taxpayers -- even if Mexican taxpayers -- will lose tons of money on an expensive project that can be spent elsewhere or (even better) not spent at all.

"Other people," in this case Mexican taxpayers, will be on the hook for one of Donald Trump's investments.

Trump's website says "a nation without a border is not a nation." So, apparently, the 239 years that have passed since 1776 we were never a nation. And, apparently, ever other country that lacks a wall also are not, and never have been, nations.


Video: Donald Trump is 'Very Good at Losing Other People's Money'

Rand Paul: We should keep talking to Iran

On the September 16, 2015 CNN Republican Presidential Debate:

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says that we should keep talking to Iran.

His statement was in response to being asked whether President Obama's upcoming meeting with Chinese officials should be canceled.

He also noted that those who would have cut off dialogue with foreign leaders are isolating the U.S. from international discussion.  Paul's foreign policy has been called "isolationist," so he was, in fact, pointing out the irony of those who call him isolationist are themselves just that.

Paul also wondered what would have happened if Ronald Reagan stopped talking to Gorbachev during the Cold War.

He also said that every time the U.S. government topples a secular dictator in the Middle East that there is backlash and unintended consequences.

Rick Santorum honest but misguided on the minimum wage

On the September 16, 2015 CNN Republican Presidential debate:

Rick Santorum went full liberal Democrat moments ago. His heart is right but his policies are misplaced. 

Why should all jobs below his proposed incremental minimum wage rate hike be illegal? Why can't low-skilled workers have something to put on their resume before they get to more difficult jobs?

I understand he wants to show Americans that Republicans aren't heartless thugs, but that is not the way to do it. 

Video: Thomas Sowell Brings the World into Focus through an Economics Lens

Video: Ron Paul: Donald Trump Is Part of the Problem

Video: The Coming Financial Collapse: Not a Matter of If but When (with Ron Paul)

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Video: KAREGA BAILEY FT. REAL T@LK - HIP HOP CULTURE



Real T@lk gets his hip-hop philosopher on midway through this video. Dopeness.

Every Christian can Defy Man's laws. But when?

Every Christian has the God-granted authority to do what Kentuckian Kim Davis did. 

For it is always better to obey God than man (Acts 5:29).

And while this is the case, it is not always strategic or prudent to do so.

For example, running red lights even though you don't believe in the human authority of the police officer that issues the ticket is not wise. 

You will owe the state hundreds of dollars in fees before the law or the grassroots will side in your favor.

Repeated offenses will get your freedom to drive taken away. Too much to lose, not much to gain. 

Or...

In the case of Eric Garner, it was unwise to resist arrest, although under a biblical framework the police had no authority to arrest him, for they were enforcing petty tax laws, which I'd argued go over and beyond any biblical limit.

However, it is absolutely OK for that same police officer to overlook and not enforce those laws.

And such is the case with Kim Davis.


On Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis' alleged hypocrisy

If Kim Davis' story holds up (notice the "if") and she is a recent convert to Christianity, then liberals are simply hypocrites. 

You can't judge her according to standards she didn't hold yet. 

But let's see, according to liberalism, she can get divorced and married all she wants. It's only when you assume Christian standards that the question of hypocrisy arises.

Let's push this one step further: We must then ask do these fault-finders want to assume Christian standards when judging the institute of marriage?

Bingo.

I didn't think so.

But here's the thing...it's completely irrelevant.

This is simply a cousin of the "straights have ruined marriage so let us have the right to get married too" argument. It's a complete non-sequitur (the "tu quoque" fallacy). It does not follow. One's immorality is not a license for another's.

The dividing line here, as it always has been from the beginning, is the Word of God.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Christians act worse than non-Christians: Bible Edition

"But she [Israel, God's Holy People] has rebelled against my ordinances and statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around her, rejecting my ordinances and not following my statutes." ~Ezekiel 5:6 (NRSV)

So basically God anticipated the whole "Christians act morally worse than non-Christians" argument 2,500 years ago.

In other words, it is a given in biblical thought that religious people can indeed act more wicked than those who don't follow that religion...but notice what standard is presupposed.

Poets in Autumn Tour 2015 featuring Janette, Ezekiel Azonwu, Preston Perry, and Jackie Hill-Perry

Janette, Ezekiel Azonwu, Preston Perry, and Jackie Hill-Perry will be in DC on Saturday, September 12, 2015.

Check out their websites.

Ezekiel's page 1, 2

Janette's page

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Video: Archie The Messenger : I AM A KING



Archie the Messenger is one of my favorite poets.

Here's his bio:

A phenomenal poet ,performer and teacher Archie the Messenger (ATM) has touched the hearts and minds of people of all races, classes and educational backgrounds. From his hometown Buffalo, New York to Baltimore, Maryland ATM has used spoken word theater as healing and entertainment for the urban community.
Archie the Messengers honors and accolades include winning the NAACPs Act-So National Oratory Championship, the New Africa House Slam(Buffalo,NY), Last Poet Standing 2004 championship (Baltimore) Rip The Mic Slam Winner,DC the Njozi Poets Slam Winner(Buffalo), Tri-City Slam Series Winner(Cleveland),. He was also a finalist in the Baltimore-vs.-DC Team, Winner of the Slam Last Poet Standing Championship and a member of Morgan State Universities Battle of the Schools Slam Team. He has been performing on the national spoken word circuit for over seven years and was the Capitol Jazz Fest Winner(Columbia MD) 2006 Nuyorican GRAND SLAM CHAMPION.

WCF Chapter One "Of Holy Scripture" Sunday School (Sept.-Oct. 2021)

Our text for Sunday School (also "The Confession of Faith and Catechisms") Biblical Theology Bites What is "Biblical Theology...