Josephus, The Essential Work

https://www.amazon.com/Josephus-Essential-Writings-Flavius/dp/0825429641

A wonderful book for those of us that believe in history in this day in which it is being torn down.

While it does mention Jesus, and Jesus half-brother James, and it is for that reason that Jesephus is somewhat familiar to Christians, I am much more impressed by it's chronicling of Jewish history and relation to the Bible, Torah, and other period works.

Josephus was born in AD 37, so he is a near contemporary of Jesus. He is a Jew that fought with the Romans, but ended up submitting, and becoming a client of Vespasian, which is the reason his works survive (history is told by the winners).

The brutality of those times is reported in maybe more detail than one would desire -- we live in a world where we avert our eyes from the still prevalent human cruelty in order to maintain the modern illusion that "human nature is basically good". One quote from emperor Augustus; "It is better to be Herod's pig than his son". Reporting the killing all the male children from a few years in a small area would be FAR less interest in that time than China killing a few hundred Uighurs today. (some people question the veracity of the Massacre of the Innocents, thinking it would be "big news" if true)

Meyer is a master of using ancient history and archaeology to establish the truth of the Bible, highly recommended to those of us who have inherited the curse of Thomas -- the desire to put our hands into the wounds.

The Book Of Concord

https://www.cph.org/p-11428-concordia-the-lutheran-confessions-a-readers-edition-of-the-book-of-concord-2nd-edition.aspx

I bought the hardcover and HIGHLY recommend it! It is a beautiful book, well printed, well bound -- a physical object that testifies to the critical importance of God being made man in the person of Christ. In this mortal coil, the physical is real to us, so it is critical that Christ came, died, was buried and rose in "the flesh". As man, he lived, breathed, cried, loved, bled, and died.

As a Risen Saviour, he lives and comes to us as a resurrected perfected body and blood that can eat and drink, yet can walk through walls and be a real presence at multiple communion tables where that resurrected body can nourish our weak and barely there spiritual self. The communion table is where our physical temporary selves have a critical connection with the eternal -- our current reality is physical, we must physically connect with the eternal through regular participation in the Body and Blood of Christ in a corporate worship.

If you have any faith, or no faith, this is a wonderful work. Coming from a Baptist tradition, this book shows the issues that led led to the Reformation, and attaches them to the Bible and the fathers of the Christian Church Universal -- based on the FAITH of Peter, rather than the person of Peter, and also deals with the further thinking that it is possible to enter the Kingdom with no sacraments at all, only "your personal decision". (unless you are a thief hanging on a cross next to Christ)

To be human is to flee God, therefore all our churches are constantly drawn away from "Saved by Grace alone through Faith in Christ alone".  The old Adam is not completely buried until we are.

So we and our churches are constantly tempted to be saved by -- "the church", "our decision for Christ", "our works", "our love", etc

Even if you are certain you will never agree, this book will make you aware of what it really is that you are not agreeing with!

Infinite Jest

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/26/infinite-jest-david-foster-wallace-20th-anniversary-20-things-need-know

A huge and widely acclaimed novel by David Foster Wallace -- deceased by his own hand, or in his terms, "he eliminated his own map". His version of "hope" would seem to be that this life is all there is. The only thing the book makes "clear" is that human life is a maddeningly meaningless "jest", and that the endless search for entertainment, escape, diversion, pleasure, etc is most likely to make it even more nasty.

Somehow, reading "The Secular Age", another gigantic book, led me to Jest ... I first tried a cliff notes version of Secular Age in "How To Not Be Secular", however I felt I needed the "real deal", so ended up jumping off that cliff as I did with Jest.

I started reading Jest because of the Corona lock-down terror -- a surreal time seemed appropriate to take up a surreal, long, difficult work. Then came the BLM riots, "cancel the police", the building of our addition project started, and then my dad died. It was NOT "an appropriate time" ... although the fact that Wallace was plagued by anxiety, depression and panic attacks, as I have been, made the surreal somewhat too real.

Not a book to be recommended unless grotesque, pointless, highly detailed despair is something that appeals to you!

Facebook Alternatives

https://reason.com/2018/10/29/ready-to-get-off-facebook-reason-reviews/

Abortion, The Worship Of Self

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/opinion/abortion-covid.html

The ultimate sacred "right" of the left.

At a time when countless medical procedures have been delayed due to the supposed danger of carrying them out during the time of Corona, one procedure is SO critical that it may not be delayed! Cancer diagnosis? No problem, DELAYED! Heart surgery? Delayed! Oh, and to even question such a thing shows that you are incredibly selfish!

Abortion OTOH? The article closes with; 

"Despots love to pretend they’re rolling back rights to save lives. Don’t believe them."

Got that? Right of to leave your home? Right to assemble? Right to gather to worship? All considered to not be "rights", but "privileges" that the government is free to restrict at will.  Constitution? Suspended when someone says "virus". 

Abortion, the "right" stated nowhere in the Constitution, is so sacred to the left that it is despotic to "use the virus as an excuse" to limit this ultimate "right". Indeed.

"Thou shalt have no other God before me" is the commandment the left (Satan) hates the most -- because it replaces it with the individual, the "self" being the highest authority -- "god", the little god that shits.

The second most hated is "Thou shalt not kill". God is the giver of life, life is sacred -- God gives it and it is his to take. Christ is "The Way, the Truth, and the LIFE".

When the self is "god", the power of life and death MUST be declared by the self as "unalienable". The fact that life is a gift from God must be denied -- the idol of spiritless matter must be worshiped.

And so it is -- the dogma of the Satanic left is made clear. "The self is god ... all shall bow to ME!". 

Ball Of Collusion, Russiagate Hoax Exposed

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/05/exposing-the-hoax.php

1984, George Orwell

I believe this is the 3rd time I've read it ... blogs, Goodreads and Kindle make records for the last "decade" or so much better. It looks like the last time was 2012 (I failed to blog it), and the time before that was likely "late 1970s".

Pretty much everyone knows the jist of it ... Winston Smith, Big Brother, Newspeak, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, total lack of privacy, eternal war. "INGSOC" (English Socialism) with its sacred principles -- Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. It is a classic that all would be well served to read merely so we have a "common framework".

In the time prior to "1950", that was true for the "elite educated" as so well covered by Buckley in "God And Man At Yale". Today, more than in Orwell's time, we see that one of the chief focuses of "The State", "The Party" (TP- Democrat as I like to call it), the media, the mass market, etc is to define that "common framework" ... the "Common Myth" through which the powers that be want to be certain we ALL see as "truth". "Moral Believing Animals" explains how that "World View" is built and accepted by all of us -- what differs is the specifics of our model, and how hard it is to communicate with someone who has a different World View (model). 

Back in 2012 I was assuming that we were quickly headed  for a future somewhat like "1984" ... shortages, being forced to ONLY do things the way the "Politically Correct" state demanded, or to suffer "consequences". There were rumors that my banishment from IBM was partially due to my insufficient celebration of gay "marriage". My comforting thought then was that an armed populace would somehow "head that off". 

Fast forward to today,. and I am utterly amazed by the level of fear and the urge not only to comply with whatever changing directive the state throws out, but to turn in others who fail to sufficiently bow to those orders. Initially, we were "flattening the curve" for "a few weeks" during which masks were NOT ADVISED because we needed those for the "front line". 

Then, no "curve" developed, and even in the hottest of hot spots (NYC), the big navy hospital ship called in to handle the non-existent "curve". left, and healthcare workers around the nation were put on furlough, since every "non-essential" procedure was not being done. 

When we had been advised to NOT wear masks, we were told they did not work every well, and EVERYONE was eventually going to get this virus anyway!  We were not wearing the masks and only going to "safe places" like WalMart, Costco, Home Depot and liquor stores because they were "essential", however churches, corner bars and other small businesses were not! We had to FLATTEN  THAT CURVE, because many/most of us were going to need a ventilator! 

Now it seems that the virus is very non-lethal (like .2-.4 death rate, much less for the young, essentially zero for preteen), and "at some point", it is critical to develop "herd immunity" -- BUT NOT NOW! Oh, and the masks DEFINITELY protect others -- and maybe even you. In any case, they will protect you from dirty looks and online haranguing -- you most probably will feel virtuous wearing one!

How deliciously Orwellian! 

Poor Winston Smith required massive torture to finally learn to love Big Brother. Apparently, for our coddled culture, all that was needed was a little virus fear, media hype, and some Facebook shaming! 

George messed up a bit on sex. He seemed to think that it was too dangerous to allow sexual freedom. Apparently, TOTAL sexual freedom provided through abortion on demand, birth control and abandonment of all sexual morality for pure hedonism is even more effective. My sense is that abortion is key -- one you are willing to celebrate the killing of the most vulnerable, the abandonment of any other thought of morality is a walk in the park.  

It seems that we have proven that the worship of pleasure destroys the family, and as Orwell understood, once the family goes, Big Brother is there! He will provide -- and in much greater level of hedonistic enjoyment and freedom from ANY responsibility or labor than Orwell postulated. 

As we now see, the modern "Big Brother" may well tell you to hunker down at home, wear a mask, send in all your money above a certain "fair income", but he certainly won't restrict any of your sexual proclivities (except possibly chastity). He will just insure that your life a totally meaningless pursuit of earthly pleasure, with an absolute minimum of responsibility beyond increasingly slavish worship of Big Brother, and and regular "Two Minute Hate" (currently of Trump). You are required to signal your "virtue" to your fellow Big Brother believers via posting approved hate memes on social media. 

Orwell's dystopian vision was very dark ... our Fascism comes with a disarming smiley face. 

A Viral Fable

Once upon a time in the Middle Kingdom, there arose a Great Leader -- so great that even many of those certain that they were enlightened (especially the young)  living in the old world territories hoisted his visage on posters and studied his little red book. As time passed, the Middle Kingdom decided to kill most of its girl babies, while the enlightened decided that children were a burden to their existence of ease and pleasure, and thus ceased having them, especially those of the evil caucasian race that were sorry for their great sins of destroying the environment and formerly being proud of their ancient culture. Their freedom to kill the unborn on the altar of convenience and pleasure became an important sacrament of their faith.

Years passed. The Middle Kingdom grew ever stronger, often aided by technologies stolen from the enlightened kingdoms. who grew ever weaker, more divided, more selfish, more addicted to pleasure, less interested in study, work, responsibility and more ashamed of their ancient culture and religion. They lost any understanding of why they had once been great and powerful,  and ceased to be so. They educated the fewer and fewer children they had to hate their culture and history, and revered centralized bureaucratic state controlled systems like the Middle Kingdom they had worshiped in their youth. They became increasingly compliant and easily led by experts. 

Independent thought became "deplorable", or sometimes seen as "bitterly clinging" to their ancient religion and such outmoded ideas as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of association. and the right to bear arms. For many, their primary virtue became showing how willing they were to follow the dictates of whatever the centralized state and world wide media complex decreed to be the facts as duly declared by the experts. 

The Middle Kingdom realized that "going viral" was power -- both in the Social Media world with "memes", and in the physical world with modified viruses. They began to experiment with modified RNA ... "Bird Flu", "Swine Flu", etc. Many attacked only pigs or chickens, but as knowledge grew, the viruses became more and more targeted. In 2009 the H1N1 virus, focused on  people less than 50 years of age, infected 60 million around the globe, and killed 500 thousand -- or maybe more. When the numbers got to high in an ancient territory ruled by BO, they just quit testing. Most of the world was blissfully unaware of this successful test of physical and media viral control. 

In 2017-2018, another successful test killed 80 thousand in the ancient territory that was once a set of united states, but was now a divided impotent backwater largely controlled by a corrupt global government. This level of carnage also received essentially no attention from the general population, proving the power of the global media. 

The focus of the masses was directed to the media created crisis that had  put the Middle Kingdom on high alert.  A larger group than predicted set of proletariat reactionaries had elected populist leaders in the ancient kingdoms of England and America who foolishly claimed they would return these former nations to the bad old days of intact families, understanding of the old culture, and even so far as allowing worship of the discredited religion of "The One True Faith" -- in fact, many of the adherents to this discredited religion were supporters of these dangerous leaders! 

This unfortunate occurrence required the Middle Kingdom to accelerate plans, and release a modified Corona virus which was very specifically targeted to those 70 years of age and above. Even more critical to the plan was the use of the global state media to declare this virus as exceedingly deadly to the entire population, and through their allies in the global health organizations to shut down the economies of the ancient kingdoms, which had quickly flourished under the dangerous reactionary leaders. 

The level of fear allowed a shift to only voting by mail, which in turn allowed the votes to be created and counted by Deep State employees, in total agreement with expert approved global elite dogma. The 50 year plan of the Great Leader of little red book and posters was finally realized! The people who had worshiped his visage in their youth were now in complete control! 

The early 2020s became known as "The Viral Age". A series of targeted viruses were released, the most crucial of which was 90% effective in killing caucasian males over the age of 40. Since a huge majority those under the age of 40 had been fully indoctrinated with the teachings of the Great Leader, the threat of any continuation or recurrence of what quickly became known as "The Deplorable Rebellion" went down the memory hole.

As the Middle Kingdom became "The Kingdom",  the goal of a benevolent one world state was finally achieved. Through an expertly controlled global media, ubiquitous global surveillance, and genetically engineered targeted viruses. Finally, a completely rational peaceful state was realized! The tragic and mysterious Muslim Plague following the Hajj in 2021 killed 70% of the world Muslim population before 

Huadong Medicine incredibly developed an effective (but expensive) vaccine. The fortunes of trillionaires Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg were much enhanced due to their prescient investments in this fine humanitarian company.

In these post post modern times, it is extremely dangerous to claim "a moral" to ones fables. The concept of "fiction" is considered extremely dangerous, since it indicates a freedom of thought indicative of the illusion that mere private thoughts have some validity in the reality of absolute state control of thought, association, speech, travel and any old tired ideas of the worship of something beyond the state.

Be well, comrade! 

** For the censors that rule, I humbly beseech you to remember this is FICTION (the future always is!), and therefore, here in the pre Middle Kingdom era, highly necessary to maintain a threadbare illusion of free speech!**

The Scent Of BO Is Getting More Obvious and Noxious

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/05/12/trumps_methodical_destruction_of_obamas_legacy_143175.html

Obama didn't like the "Hussein" middle initial, and named his dog "Bo". I imagine that to those who revere "The One" and label Trump "Drumph", scream "Not my president!", "Orange man bad!", etc, it is objectionable to use "BO" ... TJR, FDR, JFK, LBJ, are not available for comment ... although "W", or "Dubya" still is.  Certainly, at least since "Tricky Dick", Ronnie Raygun", and "Dumb Dubya", any thought of "respect for the office" is well gone. 

How about the idea of respect for fellow Americans? That may have eroded a bit more slowly, however the "Religious Right" was soundly trashed by the mainstream in the 1980s, Obama had his "Bitter Clingers", and I think Hillary topped the lefts view off nicely with "Deplorables". 

Lately I've noticed some objection from the left to the "sheep/sheeple" designation. Interesting because even the left sees that our "elites" have largely become "Excellent Sheep". As a Christian of course, I seek to be one of Christ's lambs -- praying each day that through his Grace and the workings of the Holy Spirit, I might better submit myself to the Good Shepherd. 

Somewhere along the way, much of America has lost the sense that we are ALL sheep that have gone astray. Even modern psychology / political science has realized that we are all "followers", the question is really just "of what".  John Adams said "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." It is easy to understand this. Since man is unable to govern himself without a belief in some higher power, creed, etc, if that is lacking, some form of intrusive dictatorship is going to happen -- we can just pray for it to be "benevolent". 

As a Christian, I believe the Bible teaching that it is really God or Satan -- not a comfortable thought, however God never promised us comfort -- in fact, he promised that Christians would have have TROUBLE in this world in a constant battle with Satan. 

The whole linked article is well worth reading ... short, and NOT religious! I just left the track as I of as I often do. We remain in grave peril ... can Barr and Durham complete their "mission impossible" exposing the tyrannical malfeasance of the Democrat Deep State? Can Trump even be re-elected in the face of massive MSM. Deep State, vote fraud, etc? 

It's going to be a wild and dangerous ride! 

Egregious as the Flynn case is, it represents something much larger than injustice for one man or innocent mistakes by fallible officials. It was part of a broader effort to spy on political opponents, turn law enforcement and intelligence agencies into partisan instruments, and undermine a duly elected president by illegitimate (and likely illegal) means. If the effort really was that pervasive, if the means really were illegal, if the leaders really were senior officials, this would be the biggest political scandal in American history. We cannot say yet that it is. We won’t know until we see more documents and U.S. Attorney John Durham completes his criminal investigation. But we have already seen very serious malfeasance by very high officials, coordinated across multiple departments. Amid this swirling debris, the Obama legacy is imploding.

Postmodern Attempted Christianity

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/sunday/weird-christians.html

An an article that can be taken as hopeful in some ways and disturbing in others. The good part -- at least some younger people are starting to think that the postmodern secular life is not meaningful -- and not even "fun". The sad part is that they believe they can "find God", and unsurprisingly in this time, he is being marketed as "available for consumption" on the internet. 

More and more young Christians, disillusioned by the political binaries, economic uncertainties and spiritual emptiness that have come to define modern America, are finding solace in a decidedly anti-modern vision of faith. As the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdowns throw the failures of the current social order into stark relief, old forms of religiosity offer a glimpse of the transcendent beyond the present.

Many of us call ourselves “Weird Christians,” albeit partly in jest. What we have in common is that we see a return to old-school forms of worship as a way of escaping from the crisis of modernity and the liberal-capitalist faith in individualism.

As I read that, I thought of "Why Liberalism Failed", a book that does a good job of covering the emptiness of chasing pleasure, money, your political tribe, etc. "Liberalism" both in the sense of free market consumerism and radical "progressive" individualism has clearly failed. 

I kept reading and low and behold there was Rod Dreher! 

Likewise for Rod Dreher, a senior editor and blogger for The American Conservative magazine and the author of “The Benedict Option,” a best-selling 2017 book that argues that Christians should abandon the culture wars and focus on living in intentional, godly communities. Aesthetics were a powerful first step toward his conversion — first to Catholicism, then to the Orthodox Church.

I have blogged on "The Benedict Option" as well.  I enjoy Dreher's thoughts -- my view is that he is falling into the trap of "you can't be too orthodox", though I think he makes some excellent points! 

To to an always interested, often appalled observer of the "Post Boomers" like myself, it is not surprising at all that they believe they can find "god" on the internet!

Thus, the "Weird Christians" find their "god" there! 

Social media platforms, with their millions of users and algorithms designed to expose users to like-minded individuals, are fertile soil for communities like Weird Catholic Twitter, a loose umbrella term for a few hundred mostly millennial, extremely online Catholics. (There are smaller Anglican and Orthodox equivalents.)

As everything in the "Post Modern" world, it's all about ME! **ME** finding something "real" (cuz it FEELS real) to **ME**!!!

The Weird Christian movement, loose and fledgling though it is, isn’t just about its punk-traditionalist aesthetic, a valorization of a half-imagined past. It is at its most potent when it challenges the present, and reimagines the future. Its adherents are, like so many young Americans of all religious persuasions, characterized by their hunger for something more than contemporary American culture can offer, something transcendent, politically meaningful, personally challenging. Like the hipster obsession with “authenticity” that marked the mid-2010s, the rise of Weird Christianity reflects America’s unfulfilled desire for, well, something real.

Here is something REAL! 

O Almighty God, merciful Father,

I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess to You all my sins and iniquities, with which I have ever offended You and justly deserve Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them; and I pray You, of Your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter suffering and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.

Confessed with faith, in a church within a Divine Service, through an ordained minister ...  "Drive by", "virtual", etc need not apply. Satan is all about presenting easy options that "feel good"!