Ephemera: How the Federal regulatory meme beats worthless congress

Less we forget, going into the new year, how completely depraved our leaders are, we need to remember the enemy and not be taken in by the bull$#!^. (I don't have OCR software on my Win7 machine, so the following is a photo of an article everyone should read.)

Ephemera & Social Philosophy: On higher education

The linked article in this post lays out all the important concepts and realities regarding higher education. The artificial credential inflation has been so effectively programmed into our consciousness that I have had to stop and reprogram myself on many occasions. For example many people I meet are not at my intellectual level and yet they are educated beyond my level and so in society's eyes they are better. And many of my friends that I have intellectual parity with, vary from those with little or no formal education to those who have doctorates, master's, and equivalent degrees, and my education consists of years of trade school and the reading of books; when we ignore this education meme we understand each other quite well. I meet many highly intelligent productive people who are, in the eyes of our culture, uneducated. But, with my exposure to heavy bureaucracy at the Port of Seattle, I meet the other end of the spectrum, and one can only say, "Many people are educated way beyond their intelligence."

This would all be fine and worth filing under signs of the decline, but this same attitude has invaded the church, especially in Presbyterian circles, and thus should be criticized. To many of my own brothers and sisters in the church, I am nothing because I am uneducated. But at least with the true believers in the faith who are my friends and associates, I don't have to deal with this attitude. The church needs to self correct on this (among many other more important issues) so that we are not blinded by our sublimation within the greater culture.

Ephemera: Another example of the consequences of a society that rejects God

Without going into a massive philosophical treatise on all the ramifications of how the many failures of the American Church helped or modified the various tyrannies of our civilization's cultural mores, I want to state that is was the renewed Israel of God, the Universal Church, which lifted women from mere property (sometimes of less value than farm animals) to equal and humane value in the sight of society and before the throne of God.

Now as many in our society have either rejected God outright or whose involvement in the civil religion or some other toxic meme has caused them to de facto reject God, we see the value of women declining as witnessed by this report.

I fear for my sisters (in the Adamic sense in my case), for my mothers (I give honor to my own mother as well as my mother-in-law), and for my daughters (again in the Adamic sense for me), since they inevitably become the victims when a civilization collapses. In the Christian Church every one of us men has the relations of mothers, sisters, & daughters, so we must protect them when or if the circumstances of life allow. If we cannot physically (and even when we can physically) protect them, we must stand in the breach spiritually through prayer, loving acts of service, and a life of understanding.

Social Philosophy: Interesting take on Feminism by UKL

UKL's latest blog entry makes a few interesting points. I like the statement from her entry:

"Can women operate as women in a male institution without becoming imitation men?"

Because everything I've seen when given power, women are just as exploitative as men if given the opportunity.

Ephemera: Noticing the flying time etc.

It's hard to believe it, but it is already the second Sunday in the Advent season. Our pastor has departed from standard expositional sermons for the morning service to give us a series on the incarnation.

The link is to last week's sermon, but I recommend that when the other sermons are posted, that everyone should take a look.

Merry Christmas season, everyone!