Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

SISTERS OF PERPETUAL INDULGENCE made a lot of us choke and rename the Los Angeles Draggers. Why? Some suggest gay pride has overreached making it rejected by straights.  May be.  I happen to be a straight guy who inadvertently had 3 gay guys as roommates at various times.  It was a bit of a comedy with the exchange of barbs between us. They were all nice guys under it all.   But I think I now understand why God is so opposed to homosexuality. In Leviticus 18 & 20 it links the lifestyle to Canaanite priests who human-sacrificed children and says to Israel—if you do any of these practices of the Canaanites, the land will vomit you out the way it is vomiting out them.  So what part of “vomit you out” do you not understand? Again, Jesus says in Matt. 19:5ff that famous line used in marriage ceremonies. “[Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning] made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his farther and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh…What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” God’s Word.  No ambiguity.  But what does God have against gay male lifestyles? The answer is in what transpired once tolerance to gays happened in the 80s.  It wasn’t enough to quietly live a gay life as 1.7% of population.  It had to be promoted loudly, proudly, demanding not just tolerance but absolute agreement. Drag queens must flaunt it and the next iteration is acceptance of child molestation so that gay guys can connect with children.  Through all this is a Self-Love, look at me, be as obnoxious as possible attitude and demand agreement from everybody else. Extreme Self-Love is the problem. It doesn’t just leave God out, it spits on Him.  And by assuring themselves they are gay by birth (yet there is no gay gene and many proofs that it is a syndrome) they convince themselves that what they do is impossible to subdue.  That departs from most of us Christians who admit our confusion and sin, who pray a lot about forgiveness and help in doing better by the Almighty.  Being gay is not to be any kind of terrible guy in this world, it’s to be at war with God.  At least that is how I see it. 

TEACH THE REAL STORY OF CLIMATE CHANGE

 

TEACH THE REAL STORY OF CLIMATE CHANGE not the idiocy of politicians.

            Global Warming has now been retitled “Climate Change” since predictions of doom in a dozen years never arrived.  Here’s a quick story that a 5^th grader can understand.

            If you add CO2 or methane to an atmosphere you get an effect of visible light being penetrable but not infrared.  Since most visible light from the sun strikes the surface wherein continents and oceans re-emits heat (infrared), a “greenhouse effect” takes place. The trapped heat can’t get out.  But that’s where political knowledge, having congratulated itself on intellect, seems to stop. The upper 8 feet of all the water on earth has a much heat storing capability as the entire atmosphere.  Middle School Proof: Atmospheric pressure is 14.7 lbs. per square inch.  That’s the weight of a column of air 200,000+ feet high and 1 inch by 1 inch at sea level on the bottom.  How much water does it take to equal that same weight atop 1 square inch?  It works out to 32 feet.  But water has 5 times the “heat capacity”, a measure of the heat it can store per pound, as air does.  That means that 6.4 feet of water over all the planet equals the heat capacity of the entire atmosphere.  But of course we only have water over 78% of the earth, so if we proportion this, about 8 feet of all the surface water on earth equals the atmosphere in ability to store heat.

            So all that talk about raising the temperature 10 degrees in 12 years is counterbalanced by the fact that a little sliver of oceans and lakes can absorb the heat and then by circulation with the deep, dissipate it. The oceans are almost everywhere 14,000 to 18,000 feet deep. Thus any climate model must take account of the ocean currents and water’s ability to take care of heat. 

            Next, if you raise the air’s temperature, what happens with water evaporation?  It increases, of course.  But when that moist air is carried aloft in the atmosphere, it forms more clouds.  Cloud tops are brilliant white and reflect 98% of the incoming visible radiation. That cools things. And studies show that this is happening a lot in the tropics.  The normal clear day absorption of heat which is over 70% falls to 2% on cloudy overcast days and cools considerably.  This means that any climate model must account for increased/decreased cloud cover and also air circulations like the N. Pacific 60-year cycle of air flow. For 60 years, the Arctic air comes down over Alaska, then it changes and weather comes from Asia. 

            Add to this the 500-1000 year cycles of Solar radiation where the sun burns brighter, then cooler.

            4 effects, maybe more. None is completely understood. It’s getting complicated, isn’t it.  Scientists use various tools to see what the climate has done historically. Greenland’s ice sheet is 10,000 feet deep in places and records about 3 million years of ice.  Each year has a cold winter of snow accumulation and a warm summer with partial melting, so each year leaves a record like a tree ring.  Radioisotopes can approximate the temperature of each year and atmospheric humidity.  There are also clever indicators of where the snow came from that caused the ice.  Ice ages have occurred 24 times in those 3 million years and its not been determined what causes them.  However, “nutation” of the earth must play a significant part.  Nutation is like when you spin a top and it spins nicely for awhile then suddenly goes into a few stutters before resuming smooth spinning.  That stutter is a nutation and the strongest of these occurs every 17,000 years.  It causes the tilt of the earth’s axis to change rapidly from 22.5 degrees to 24 degrees.  Rapid chill occurs over about 100 years and massive snows in the polar regions sends earth into an ace age where average temperature is 35 degrees colder.  But we also know that there are smaller ten degree changes during the ice age—25 years of Saskatchewan climate is superceded by 25-100 years of bitter cold like Greenland. One theory of why this happened explains how the temperature of the N. Atlantic Deep Water—water over 10,000 feet deep changed.  The entire circulation in and out of the Arctic sea comes from the N. Atlantic and thus affects all the oceans.

            I hope this illustrates how hog-washed and naive  the political activists are. At the end of the last ice age, warming started about 15,000BC, but then had a 17 degree pullback into cold for 1500 years beginning about 11,700 BC (Younger-Dryas episode) Then there were 2 Sahara warmings, the first at 4400 BC and the second 2200-2000 BC.  This changed the Sahara from a short grassland to harsh desert.  (There was a 150 year dust bowl after 2150 BC in Egypt that caused the Nile to not flood  and people revolted overthrowing the Old Kingdom. Pharaoh was a “god” who brought annual flooding, and when that stopped, people revolted.) During the Roman Empire it was warm all over Europe.  (So much so that grapes grew in England.  You can’t grow them very well there today—too cold.) But beginning in the 500s to 800s there was a colder climate.  Crops didn’t grow well and people starved.  Barbarians were displaced by climate in Asia and invaded.  It’s known as the Dark Ages.  Then there was a significant warming from 1000-1300 in which medieval life flourished in Europe.  Then in the early 1300s Europe fell into what is known as the little Ice Age.  Recurrent very cold spells took place through the early 1800s. (London used to have an annual ice fair on the frozen Thames river each year.  Today it never freezes.)  Siince 1900 we have had our current warming trend.   The bottom line is that climate is always changing and there’s much more to it than Al Gore preaches.

Geezer economy

 

GEEZER ECONOMY  Economists are now worried about world population declining. Did I not try to tell people about this?!  USA, since 1973 has done about 64 million abortions.  Had these been given birth, we’d have enough to fill the gap in labor force so that Social Security would survive. Future History book chapter: "Social Security died because they wanted a BMW instead". The entire rich world is in trouble with pensions.  Currently 3 people from working age to 64 support 1 person over 65.  By 2050 it will be 2:1. And it doesn’t just effect our own ponzi-scheme Social Security.  Retired folks support themselves on savings which will invest in weaker companies due to the labor shortage.  And then who supports the government if it has far less taxes?  (Well, you know what they will do!)

In 2000 the world’s fertility rate was 2.7 births per woman (population sustainability rate = 2.1) Today it is 2.3 and falling.  The 15 largest countries by GDP all have negative replacement rates.  This includes India and China and comprises 3/8 of world population. Ain’t just Italy and Japan anymore.

Here’s the really bad news.  Countries full of elderly have less enterprising young people comfortable with taking risks.  That is, productivity growth slows. If you are retired, that’s your investments. Next politics gets ossified.  Old Farts don’t spend much as consumers and benefit less when economies thrive.  They are less likely to promote pro-growth policies.  The impulse of liberals to encourage immigration sounds helpful, but if immigrants aren’t screened for the 3 magic attributes—work,education, and family/faith—they are a drag on the system, not a benefit. Thus it is predicted that by 2050 there will be a dearth of young educated workers, especially in places like USA which doesn’t do well with bottom-up education.  And pro-family policies have proven little help when family/faith is declining. Fewer babies, less well nurtured, means less human genius.  What then?  A.I. to rule us? I guess if you get old and want to stay at  home but there’s no at-home nursing available, at least that AI robot won’t steal your china and jewelry, right?  Right?   

INSTEAD OF 1619, TEACH 33

 

INSTEAD OF 1619, TEACH 33. The Americas in 33AD was all hunter-gathers except for a few in Peru experimenting with potatoes and llamas agriculture.  Agriculture allows division of labor, diversified food and food storage.  Hunter societies attain less than 4 people per square mile.  Ag allows hundreds. But America had no cereal grains or lowland animals.  In 33 AD China, the Han Chinese had found wheat and rice culture 2000 years before with chickens and hogs, and swept over most of eastern Asia, genociding the hunters, as is often the case. Ancestor worship and philosophies were the religious practice.  People have unknowns—disease, crop failure, weather, war, death—that leads them to superstitious beliefs in gods, trolls, spells, as a way to explain the unexplainable. India, by 33AD had a pantheon of gods and agriculture.  West African Bantus had just discovered agriculture, were spreading all over the continent killing off most of the other 5 indigenous races. But their only carbs came from sugar cane.  Syrupy cane fields were thick with birds and insects, especially mosquitos bearing deadly disease. Life expectancy for cane workers was only early twenties.  So they were engaged in constant warfare and slave capture to get someone to do the dirty work. Rome & Egypt had lots of slavery and gods, in the following 300 years the slaves got free--not by revolt but by Christian faith.

            Christianity is simple. The Living God comes to you in your miserable life.  Trust Him and Grace grabs you.  Then you are surprised to find God’s Spirit working around you, even within you.  And it dawns on you that you have something nobody can take from you. Slave you may still be, but free as a child of the Almighty God.  This is the simple thing that is being lost in modern America and Europe.  It is why politics, science and government are being sought to fill the unknowns. Which works about as well as the Post Office and 18^th century bleeding therapy of “bad blood”. 

            By 400 AD Western Roman Empire had been overrun by barbaric tribes, lost most education, cities destroyed, familes destroyed. The Tang Dynasty in China had run its course.  251 rulers in 400+ years and some of the bloodiest successions in history.  Then warlords. In the Americas, Mayas were emerging who had periodic famines and so had to perform lots of human sacrifices to placate angry gods.  

            By 1500, Europe had come through a long Dark Age, then the Back Death.  Rulers were seldom good family men, almost all had numerous mistresses and numerous bastard heirs vying for succession. But monks had by this time done practical experiments in a fledgling science/engineering.  Banking, accounting, mathematics had arisen.  And moveable type had been invented to print on paper.  But the Christian church had fallen into bad practices and doctrines and was ripe for Reformation. Sanitation was horrid. Life span was 30 years, less than when Rome ruled. Europeans were backwards compared to the Middle East, India or China.  Islam had nearly conquered Europe, turned back by “not worth it” as much as battles.  India had invented algebra and “Arabic” numbering and was half Muslim.  China’s Ming Dynasty was easily the strongest kingdom on earth. Native Ameicans in Mexico had cornered the market on obsidian, used to make super knives, and rode their success to establish the Aztec empire.  Incas had just conquered and gathered together kingdoms of the Andes. Yet Europe was doing things the others weren't.  Monastic women were being educated.  Universities were established. The town clock became common. And everywhere were free peasants.

            But the Reformation and Arab-Turkish blockage of trade to India, and fear that the Turks would conquer all of Europe caused tiny Portugal to sail the seas looking for safe islands to colonize ahead of the onslaught of Islam. Their success, even in going to India, caused Spain to compete.  Columbus found America and like the rest of the Spanish was a terrible governor.  They enticed the natives into serfdom with beef, demanded they convert, destroyed native culture.  Meanwhile, France and England fished the Grand Banks and France was quick to find fur trading and trapping good in Quebec. Trouble was, few wanted to emigrate to that cold country and the colony languished. Arcadia was equally poor.  As the Spanish encroached in Florida, the English wanted colonies but the crown had no money. So they relied on proprietors to fund fortune-hunters. Finally Jamestown was founded and tobacco found as a cash crop.  But it was the Protestant controversy forcing out Calvinists that caused the Pilgrims to sail.  Storms got them off course and they landed in Massachusetts.  Peacefully trading furs and fishing, this group of redneck farmers founded the first truly successful, self-governing colony.  In 1620 they were a tiny minority.  Their guns were no match for rapid-firing bows and arrows. But a revolution had begun in Northern Europe.  The Protestant system on belief spawned eagerness for discovery in nature.  Astronomy, microscopes, anatomy and blood circulation, mining, farming techniques, weaving, chemistry and physics all exploded in this new thing called science.  The industrial revolution stormed England. Stiff keel-hulled vessels provided transport on the high seas. From 1571, when Brahe disproved the old medieval solar system until the early 1700s flintlock rifles, technology exploded. 

            And then there was free land.  The longing of serfs in England to have their own plot of land and be free was overwhelming.  If the Pilgrims could do it, anyone could.  And since New England had barely 1 person per square mile, the land looked empty and free for the taking.  Here are best demographic historian numbers.  Continental USA area had about 1.5 million natives over 3 million square miles in 1750. Pre-Colombian population, prior to Eurasian diseases, was about 5 million. 2/3 of the 1.5 million lived in what we call the Deep South where 3 Sisters agriculture had taken hold—corn, beans, squash all raised along with weeds together.

            The ship that brought slaves to Jamestown in 1619 was unwanted. It was storm damaged and badly in need of repair.  The boat dumped most of sick slaves when it left and Jamestown residents wrote contracts for indentured servitude with most of the Africans.  But the cold weather took an extreme toll on the Africans and by 3 years later, they had all died out except perhaps for a couple house girls.  Virginians had by that time concluded that Irish would make better tobacco workers and began immigrating them.  When Carolina colony began it had a no-slavery charter, but some Barbados slave owners invaded the low country along with slaves.  Georgia also had a no-slave charter but Carolina slave owners got Georgia land near Savannah.  Remember, people were scattered and governments were loose, so people got away with things. 

            And then George Whitefield came to Charleston and began to preach like Billy Graham.  He traveled up the east coast with his tent and in the aftermath, church attendance tripled by 1742.  Each colony had its own state church, but people were so stunned that their neighbors in another state had reacted the same way to his sermons, they began to think, “We’re one people!” and the phrase United States of America came into use. John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government  was published, and his principles--tolerance, equality, natural law, property rights, liberty, God-given rights, separation of church and state—became the ideas that Americans wanted. And where did Locke get this?  From the guy who died and rose again in 33AD.