Cosmos: The new daguerreotype: For the Midwest.

Video Overview of Earth

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Anthropology: The poignancy of lost humanity.

The first thing to know in understanding humanity is Original Sin and mankind's diversion from his journey to heaven. Because our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, God has put a yearning for something greater and transcendent in our hearts. The following video seems to echo this yearning: Iz sings "Over The Rainbow".

Technos & Social Philosophy: Robotics and the Fear of our replacement

My brother has a interesting report from Japan on robots.
His link. You've got to check out the video. Also, check out the song at his link called "The Humans Are Dead".

and of course my favorite song about a robot from ELO: (check out the video in the link just below)

Yours Truly, 2095

2095, 2095, 2095, 2095
I love you, sincerely
Yours truly, yours truly...

I sent a message to another time
But as the days unwind, this I just can't believe
I sent a note across another plane
Maybe its all a game, but this I just can't conceive.

Can you hear me?

I drive the very latest hovercar
I don't know where you are
But I miss you so much till then
I met someone who looks a lot like you
She does the things you do
But she is an IBM.

2095, 2095, 2095, 2095
I love you, sincerely
Yours truly, yours truly...

She's only programmed to be very nice
But she's as cold as ice
Whenever I get too near
She tells me that she likes me very much
But when I try to touch
She makes it all too clear.

She is the latest in technology
Almost mythology
But she has a heart stone
She has an i.q. of 1001
She has a jumpsuit on
And she's also a telephone.

2095, 2095, 2095, 2095
I love you, sincerely
Yours truly, yours truly...

Chorus:
Is that what you want? (is it what you want? )
Is it what you really want? (is it what you really want? )
Is that what you want? (is it what you want? )
Is it what you really want?

I realize that it must seem so strange
That time has rearranged
But time has the final word
She knows I think of you, she reads my mind
She tries to be unkind
She knows nothing of our world

Although her memory banks overflow
No one would ever know
For all she says: is that what you want?
Maybe one day I'll feel her cold embrace
And kiss her interface
'til then, I'll leave her alone.

I love you, sincerely
Yours truly, yours truly...

Repeat chorus:

Is that what you want?

Song Lyrics & Social Philosophy: Rush's The Trees

"The Trees"

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'Oppression!'
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw.

Historical Philosophy: A Problem for Future Historians

The following post by Peter Leithart is too well written to just put up a link to it; I quote here:

When we read that ancient tyrants hired magicians to perform haruspicy with the entrails of dismembered infants, we immediately discount the record as propaganda. We know without needing to investigate that similar accusations against Jews in the Middle Ages had become a topos of anti-religious rhetoric.

I’m not saying we should believe these accounts, but I wonder: Centuries from now, historians will tell about a civilization that tore apart infants in their mothers’ wombs, or burned them in saline solution. Historians will claim that in the early twenty-first century, the leading citizens of the United States could not decide whether or not piercing the brain of a partially-born baby should be legal.

They will argue that scientists grew embryos in laboratories in the hopes that their genetic material could provide miraculous cures for the sick and dying. Economic historians will trace the sources for the billions of dollars gathered by infant-killers, and the billions more devoted to research on murdered babies.

And I wonder: When historians say all this, will anyone believe it?

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 8:35 am

And on another topic for future historians, it will be wondered why a civilization that, though imperfectly, reached the highest levels of personal liberty and prosperity for it's citizens chose to piss it all away and embrace a failed economic system (socialism) and chose to lose to a barbaric group of thugs (radical Islamo-Fascists) who have no regard for culture, liberty, and equitable prosperity for it's citizens.

Personal Update: Irwin Family, the myth.

Here is a logo from Sam Irwin's Advertising Company, Time Art Productions, TM, INC., GMBH:

Social Philosophy: Obamanation: misc. 2

Courtesy of my mother (who is now safe in Canada--now a less socialist state than the US),

"We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism."

- Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev, 1959

And on another note, this bulletin shows how the war on drugs is interfering with the gospel, and thus showing the anti-God nature of the United States government.

Social Philosophy: Obamanation: misc. 1

I hope this entry is among the last I will waste on the current regime change (unless there is some new extreme outrage--a likely possibility).

I have been saying to my friends, relatives, and associates that the new regime in Washington DC will show a level of corruption (unless you mindlessly believe the mainstream media) that will make George Bush's people look like a bunch of kindergartners.

My statement still stands as news came today that President Elect Barack Hussein Obama has appointed Tom Daschle to Secretary of DHHS. You remember Daschle--the one who had dead Native Americans voting for him and who refused to live in his own state.

I think this bunch of Chicago political thugs is even going to make Bill Clinton look like a saint.

It's not pleasant to be alive during the end of your civilization.

Social Philosophy: Malleable truth.

After looking at the following article about how Dr. Hansen has modified scientific evidence to fit his preconceived ideals, I got to thinking about how this is really what so many people in the world do. The fallenness of mankind (see Original Sin) has made our reason subject to our heart or emotions. Here is what D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has to say:

...Man, in other words, instead of looking at life with his mind, looks at it with with his desires and affections. He prefers darkness; he is controlled by his heart instead of by his head. We must be quite clear about this. This is not to say that man as God made him should not have a heart, and should not feel things. The important thing is that no man should be governed by his emotions and desires. That is the effect of sin. A man should be governed by his mind, his understanding.
This surely is the final answer to all those people who are not Christian, and who say they are not Christian because they think and because they reason. The simple truth about them is that they are governed, not by their minds, but by their hearts and by their prejudices. Their elaborate attempts to justify themselves intellectually is nothing but an attempt to camouflage the godlessness of their hearts. They are trying to justify the kind of life they are living by putting up an intellectual position; but the real trouble is that they are governed by desires and lusts. They do not approach the truth with the mind, they approach it with all these prejudices which come from the heart. As the Psalmist puts it so perfectly: 'The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.' That is what the unbeliever always says, and that is why he says it; and then he tries to find an intellectual reason to justify what his heart wants to say.

Is this not what the scientist today does? When the facts don't fit my preconceived theory, I'll just change them.

Lloyd-Jones goes on to make just that point:

Our Lord here reminds us of this plainly. It is the heart that covets these worldly things, and the heart in sinful man is so powerful that it governs his mind, his understanding and his intellect. Man likes to think of himself as a gigantic intellect. Scientists are often fond of claiming this; but I can assure you that scientists are some times the most prejudiced men you can meet. Some of them are prepared to manipulate facts in order to buttress their theory. They often start their books by saying that a certain idea is but a theory, but a few pages later you find them referring to it as a fact. That is the heart in operation and not the mind. This is one of the greatest tragedies about sin and its effects. In the first instance it upsets the order and the balance; and the greatest and supreme gift becomes subservient to the lesser. 'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'

And you see this effect also in journalism as reporters only see aspects of events that fit their view instead of just reporting what happened, or like the guy on CNN who stated publicly that he would do everything he could to make the presidency work (not withstanding that is not his job as a journalist).

One could go on but you get the point.

Technos: My dream car (for my commute)

This car is the Chevy Volt, lets hope that GM is still in business by the time the car comes out. At least this electric car has some style.

Here is a link to article related to the photo: link

Social Philosophy: Economics, part 1 (of 2167?)

To add to the many other avenues of inquiry into the nature of things in God's universe that I am already involved in, I am taking up a study of Economics--true economics, not the Keynesian b.s. that is typically foisted onto the average college student. Part of my motivation is to be able to instruct my son, Samuel (who wants to study business and art), into a better philosophical model of how markets work. I will eventually read all the big names like Hayek, Von Mises, Adam Smith, etc., but right now I ran into an interesting person by the name of Jean-Baptiste Say. Here is a quote from him:

"A hard working laborer, I was told, fancied working by candlelight. He had calculated that, during his vigil, he burned a 4-penny candle, earning 8 pennies by his work. A tax on tallows and another on the manufacture of the candles increased by 5 pennies the cost of his luminary, which became thus more expensive than the value of the product that it could shed light upon. From then on, as soon as night fell, the workman remained idle; he lost the 4 pennies which his work could obtain him, and without the tax service perceiving anything out of this production. Such a loss must be multiplied by the number of the workmen in a city and by the number of the days of the year."

Taxes will never completely go away, but those imposing them need to know the polynomial curve of the relationship between lost production and revenue if the taxes get too high--if this is known by an enlightened leader(s) then taxes can be kept low to encourage the creation of wealth (which is not a static thing as the lefties would have you believe).

Technos: Dirigibles to make comeback?

Dirigible travel in Silicon Valley: is this a beginning of a trend? Personally, it does my heart good to see this and perhaps one day (if the Obamanogs don't steal all my pitiful wealth) I may get to travel in the comfort of a high tech LTA liner.

Social Philosophy: Obamanation: One of the few to stand alone.

This might be redundant to Mark Horne or any Libertarians out there that might stumble across this blog, but this is too well written and perfect economic courage. I can count on my left hand the number of people I know who can think outside the box like this woman:

No He Can't
by Anne Wortham

Fellow Americans,

Please know: I am black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul’s name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a black president to love the ideal of America.

I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival – all that I know about the history of the United States of America, all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America. Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn’t look like them. I would have to be wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration – political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

I would have to believe that "fairness" is equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.

Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead – and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.

So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a black man to the office of the president of the United States, the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over – and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a black person. So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to – Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine – what little there is left – for the chance to feel good. There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.

November 6, 2008

Anne Wortham is an individualist liberal who happens to be black and American.

Social Philosophy: Obamanista stirs up disunity.

Rather than post a link to Peter Leithart's post I am going to quote it in full below (I linked before and then the link was broken when a post got archived):

Politics: Culture Wars, RIP?

Alan Wolfe, announcing the end of the culture wars with the election of Obama, accuses the South of voting against Obama because Southerners are racists: “The single most disturbing aspect of last night’s election is the transformation of the Republican Party into the party of the Confederacy. Yes, Republicans remain strong in states such as Wyoming and Idaho, and Obama won Virginia and is leading in North Carolina. But both these latter two states flipped to the Democrats because they contain large numbers of white professionals who moved there from other parts of the country and because blacks came out to vote in such force. Long-time Southern whites, by contrast, opposed Obama–those in the Deep South most of all. Despite having lost the Civil War and having been instructed by the laws of the land to treat members of both races equally, large parts of the South resisted–and they continue to resist.”

Alan Wolfe, announcing the end of the culture wars, advises Obama to ignore a significant swath of the country: “Perhaps they will be able to control the Republican Party for the next electoral cycle or two, but the white South has finally lost its privileged position in American political life; Jesse Helms’s Senate seat is now held by Kay Hagan. Like all those who lose their privileges, especially those who never earned them in the first place, they are unlikely to show much grace, despite the effort by John McCain, in his concession speech, to point the way. Obama would do well not to try to win them over but to ignore them. They have for too long been a malignant force in American political life, and we should not miss their passing.”

Alan Wolfe, announcing the end of the culture wars, ignores the fact that over 50 million people voted against Obama - are they all bigots?

Alan Wolfe, announcing the end of the culture wars, does his best to reignite them and to stoke up the flames.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 8:00 am

This is so ironic in that it was the Republicans that freed the blacks at the time of the Civil War (or War between the States).

Technos: Mini-Nuke Plant

I just had to link to this article also. [Ooh, ooh, I want one!] This would allow electrical grids to completely eliminate all fossil-fuel sources from generation. One could scale up capacity as needed (especially as electric cars reach market), and this would allow us to use domestic coal for petroleum based products (where the electrics aren't feasible) and domestic crude for all our synthetics (like plastics) and other derivatives.

Lets hope the temptation for social control and social welfare (again including corporate welfare) doesn't vaporize all the money to disallow ideas like the above.

With fading hope:

Novo Visum
Neue Ansicht.

Social Philosophy: Gun grab.

I have no specific link yet, but since I do not receive broadcast TV or cable, I am sensitive to underlying news amidst the mindless pablum shoveled into the average viewer's mind. And I noticed that not even a week after the election came the announcement that certain weapon manufacturers will not be making certain automatic weapons anymore (in the US for US markets). If anyone is interested in owning weapons out there, now would be a good time to make some acquisitions before we lose another Amendment right.

Social Philosophy: Mandatory Volunteerism

Oh how beauteous are the messages of The One.

Natural Philosophy/Technos: Shields up Scotty

The concept explored in the following article has been envisioned by Ben Bova (SF author) and others before. I'm glad it's beginning to look more feasible.

Magnetic Bubble

I just hope the coming obsession by the new government with redistributing wealth doesn't short change the space program (kinda of like the Great Society did after president Lyndon Johnson).

Song Lyrics: Pink Floyd's Dogs (or the Politicians)

The following song was originally written as criticism for the capitalist masters but I think it better describes the corrupt politicians who rule our nation (and yes including the One):

Dogs

You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.
And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye, and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in.
You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder
You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you get older
And in the end you'll pack up, fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad old man
All alone and dying of cancer.
And when you loose control, you'll reap the harvest that you've sown
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone
And it's too late to loose the weight you used to need to throw around
So have a good drown, as you go down, alone
Dragged down by the stone.

I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused
Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze?
Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
And everything's done under the sun
And you believe at heart, everyone's a killer.

Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel
Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack
Who was only a stranger at home
Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone.

Natural Philosophy & Social Philosophy

From Mark Horne's blog I have this disturbing news:

End of open inquiry in science. Even if you find evidence for a different mechanism (I happen to think that the sunspot cycle has more to do with global temperatures) for global warming and cooling, you will be treasonous because you won't fit the politically correct view. It kind of reminds me of when the church erroneously jumped all over Galileo for daring to advance a different scientific view. Now we have the secular church trying to determine science rather than experimental evidence.

more head shakes

The doom of mankind is to forget the lessons of history.

Social Philosophy: The Obamanation: Misc. Thoughts

Before the Obama's SA shuts down my blog I'll say a few more things about current political developments and then I'll get back to the things that really matter like Philosophy and Literature and Theology and our small lives.

As leftists and Islamo-fascists around the world chortle with glee at the ascension of the One, I recall the words of the True Messiah, Jesus Christ (via the Holy Spirit):

2:1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.(1 Timothy 2:1-4,ESV)

I, therefore offer the following prayer:

Heavenly Father, Most Holy God, have mercy on our souls and forgive us our sins.
Lord God hear our prayer!
Lord God, forgive our nation for our wickedness. Grant us grace to accept your judgment on us in the form of the civil government that we deserve.
Lord God, as your scripture says about the heart of the king being turned by your hand I ask that you grant us a just leader and that you would not cause us to lose our liberties. May You save our new president and grant him the wisdom to rule fairly and to remember your commandments and the Great Judgment that will come to us all.
Lord God, grant this sinner grace to live in repentance and forbearance in the coming years.
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy!

This prayer is my hope but to the above mentioned chortlers, I bring to their attention this from God's word: Psalm 2

May God have mercy on us all and may He grant us tanker loads of Grace.

Social Philosophy: The Obamanation

So, the coward McCain has conceded before the final count of the votes. Too bad Jimmy Carter didn't call for the UN to supervise the vote--oh wait that only applies when the Democrats are in trouble.

All you untermensch get ready to serve the state!

Sieg Heil, The One has ascended!

and the crowd cheers

Sieg Heil

Heil Barack

as everyone making over $30k per year gets out their checkbook to give money to those who didn't work for the money (including corporations)...

Sieg Heil!!!

Social Philosophy: Link to Interesting interview.

While I don't agree to ever vote for a politician with a "D" after their name (Democrat party), I had to agree with much that the interviewee had to say. See below.

Interview

*******

Exceptions and commentary:

About 2/3's through the first part Andrew Bacevich says that Reagan talked of smaller government and tighter spending and yet these things grew. Before all you leftists get all slap-happy, consider that it is primarily Congress that has control of the extent of government and it's spending, and during the Reagan presidency, the Democrats controlled Congress. The reality of politics in a representative democracy is that to get military spending to defeat Communism, deals had to be made to enable this. (As an aside, even Reagan didn't think that policing the Middle East was worth American blood. He refused military adventurism in the ME, but he had other operations going on in the Western hemisphere.)

And on a general note, the advent of cheap consumer goods is not always bad in that it has provided the opportunity for poorer people in this country and the world access to technology for which they might have had to wait another century (until their nation or economic status caught up). There might be some villages now that don’t even have running water, but the headman might have a cell phone and a radio. I advocate a greater opportunity for all peoples of the world, so there is a positive side to cheap goods. (Another downside is the exploitation of the workers—but that’s a topic for another discussion.)

Regarding Jimmy Carter, he may have had some insight to some of the problems besetting our nation, but for me, he has discredited himself by being overly supportive of the various Communist and assorted totalitarian dictators of the world.