Moral evolution

"Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us," Obama warned at Hiroshima. "The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral evolution as well. That is why we come to this place."

            Lofty words.  It reminds me of a former Soviet official who was depressed that they could not change human nature and come up with a superior morality.  He said that many times party discussions centered around their inability to make people act nobly.  That’s telling, when you think that you have to swear to atheism if you want to be a member of the communist party.  Why would those of no-moral-absolutes be stressed over morality?  But it’s not just Soviets who struggle.  This week brings news that one of our Presidential candidates lied repeatedly about her email system, indeed created it to avoid Freedom of Information Act inquiries, has exchanged favors to foreign powers for funding of her foundation, and then tries to cover up evidence.  And this pronouncement came, not from opposing Republicans, but from an Inspector General, an Obama appointee.  Indeed, the scandal investigators have not a Republican player in their midst.  On the other side, is the Trumpeter who measures his worth in money, elevated pride to an art form, dismisses the central teaching of Christianity (“Why do I have to repent or ask forgiveness if I am not making any mistakes?”) and the practices (“my little wine and my little cracker.”).  Multiple wives, personal insults and character assassination, mocking the disabled isn’t what I normally think of as “fruit of the Spirit”.  Maybe he is just an Obama narcissist with a Republican uniform. 

            Ah, the things voters don’t choose! A Trump supporter asked if I supported Trump.  Well does that mean give him money?  Oh, no! they replied.  (I’m guessing that this person has never given a dime to anything in politics.) Well, does it mean I have to support his ideas—opposition to forgiveness from God, opposition to free markets and limited government, disinterest in the Constitution?  No, no! You can believe what you want!  Then does support mean I have to marshall 183 volunteers to walk and call 9000 households like I formerly did in a campaign?  Well, it wouldn’t hurt you to get on board for the Republican nominee! I was told.  Hmm.  I thought Lincoln freed the slaves.  I’d probably vote for the guy as lesser of two evils.  If that’s your meager definition of ‘support.’  

            And considering Obama’s moral evolution, I prefer the one Twila Paris sang about while holding a baby, conceived by the One who doesn’t evolve His morality but changes us

 

Every little baby comes into this world

Reaching for an anchor, fingers tightly curled,

Grasping for a reason, without knowing why.

We will cling to anything, ‘til the day we die.

We can hold onto sorrow, we can hold onto pain,

We can hold onto anger when there’s nothing to be gained.

We can hold onto money, we can hold onto fame,

We can hold onto glory and the honor of a name,

We can hold to a friend to the end of a rope.

But if we’re holding onto Jesus, we are holding onto hope.

Hold on!  Hold on!

Neanderthals

We’’ve been weeding the garden getting ready for this weekend’s festivities.  I came across this interesting article about some Neanderthals making rings in a cave, probably with the intention of a 3 ring circus, but Og couldn’t get the elephants down there.  Here’s an excerpt from MSN news.

“After French cavers found the rings in 1990, initial studies failed to pinpoint their age. [now estimated at 176,000 years] The structures, which sit in the middle of a large chamber, include an oval ring 22 feet long and 15 feet wide — big enough to encircle the largest sport utility vehicles — and a second, smaller ring. There are also four piles of stalagmites. Altogether, the builders pieced together about 400 sections of stalagmite weighing 2.4 tons, an amount that suggests teamwork and planning.

“The builders stacked the stalagmites in as many as four layers, bracing the walls with short buttress pieces. The rings easily pre-date the next-oldest human-built structures of a definitive age, which are 40,000 years old, says study co-author Jacques Jaubert of France’s University of Bordeaux.

“Perhaps Neanderthals, who flourished from roughly 350,000 to 40,000 years ago, blundered into the cave seeking shelter, says Marie Soressi of Leiden University in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study. But even if they built the rings for practical rather than ceremonial reasons, the structures are “changing the picture of Neanderthal behavior,” she says. “We never thought before that Neanderthals would go underground.”

“The findings raise the possibility that Neanderthals were lords of the underworld well before Homo sapiens, our species of human. The oldest evidence for modern humans making use of deep caves dates back less than 42,000 years, the study says.

Neanderthals used caves because we know they didn’t have clothes but just hung a skin about themselves rather like Kim Kardashian. Colder than blitzen in the winter, so they used caves to escape the climate and paint pictures of the bison or that dadgum deer which got away on their hunt. 

 In a related topic, have I ever told you about my explanation of how agriculture began?  We know it was originated by women since they were the gathers and the men were the hunters.  Women are global thinkers and don’t forget anything.  So probably some cave woman noticed that peach trees were growing near the place where she remembered tossing some rotten peaches last fall and the dog digging for a bone and scattering dirt onto the discarded peaches.  Could she bury pits and get peaches to grow?  So she asked her husband, the cave man.  Being male he was a linear thinker and logical, took great pride in stalking mammoths.  “Why of course!” he noted, “You have both correlation between peach pits and trees, and causality from a pit sprouting.  Go ahead, Dear, and plant the pits and see what you get.”  He then congratulated his male ego and reminded himself that this is why he was in management.  Then promptly forgot about the entire issue.  But the cave woman, being of low self-esteem and communicative, decided to ask her friends if they had ever seen this done, or done it themselves.  And had anyone ever seen this on Pinterest? No one had but her friend remembered the conversation the following spring and being supportive, said that cave woman should try it and she would help her.  So at the mouth of the cave, they began planting peach pits.   Lo! Trees grew.  The cave kids played in the trees, the cave man brushed past them each night coming home, but hardly noticing.  Then one day cave woman served him a peach for dinner.  “Hey!  Where’d you get these?” asked the caveman.

Willowdale

We were watching a large tornado or supercell on Weather channel tonight.  And it was just west of Willowdale east of Bennington.  So I asked Shirley, where the heck is Willowdale?  She didn’t know, though from the map it should have been about 10 miles from where she grew up.  As Tina Fey said, “I can see Willowdale from my front porch!”  Well, no Willowdale in the Rand McNally atlas.  But upon Googling, it turns out that there is a Willowdale, Kansas, but west of Wichita.  It is a ghost town.  Post office closed in 1938.  Still has a guy living in a trailer house with 4 dogs. They can’t see Oklahoma from their front porch, but the cat can when it climbs up on the barn roof.

So what is Willowdale?  I have no doubt it is just a location, an old crossroads or an elevator that is literally nothing now.  But TWC needs it to fill in their map so they have a location to talk about. Fair enough.  But the storm watchers were dutifully telling all the residents of Willowdale to head for shelter. ( Like they really knew the place.  Was just driving through Main Street of Willowdale last Sunday.)

What’s in a name?  Would a Pete Rose by any other name smell half so sweaty?  I cannot believe they didn’t suspend or at least eject Draymond Green of the Warriors from the game.  Draymond is an old African name that means Kick Ball.  So anyway Kick Ball Green got off easy this time.  The Warriors didn’t and lost the game big at Chesapeake/Chickasaw Arena.

You know I have often argued that they should move the Redskins to Oklahoma City where the name is appreciated.  Oklahoma means “red people” in the language of an eastern tribe.  What’s less well understood is that the tribe referred to themselves as “red people” long before Colombus or Henry Cabot or other Europeans were “discovered” as an Indian friend of mine likes to quip.  Red compared to who? Eric the Red and his boy Leif Ericson?  At any rate, if they moved the Redskins, then Oklahoma Indians could sue liberals for defamation, racism and discrimination if they didn’t like the name.

Indians have been warning about too much immigration long before Trump.  Now I see that Arnold Schwarznegger is going to be the new host of Apprentice.  Are you kidding me!  Trump lost his job to an immigrant?  I heard there was a new super PAC that was trying to get more Amish to vote this November.  But all the people said they were not Amish.  They had only thrown their TVs away so they didn’t have to listen to Hillary and Trump. any more  But Hillary has a secret weapon in Bill.  He is going to handle the economy when she’s elected.  He knows how he can save money right away at the White House.  Fire all salaried staff and replace them with interns. 

Obamacare is like a hospital gown.  One tie in back and you just think everything is covered.  Have you heard about the new game, Bernopoly.  Every time you pass GO, instead of getting $200, you have to give the poorest players some property and pay a 54% tax.  Pretty soon all the players no longer buy property or try to improve them with houses or hotels.  They just sit around waiting for someone to pass GO and give them a handout. 

Oh, I shouldn’t complain about the poor.  But maybe the Democrats can explain to me again why Voter ID discriminates against minorities and the poor because they don’t have an ID.  But doesn’t it take an ID to cash a US Treasury check? Those guys never seem to have any problem with their tax refunds, do they?  I just don’t think anyone should tell me they are oppressed when they get free housing, food stamps, cell phones, and a monthly check.

One old vet said when he joined the military it was illegal to be gay.  Then it was optional.  Now it is legal.  He decided to get out before it became mandatory.   

May 20, 1927

On a cold wet morning, May 20, 1927 a 25 yr.old kid climbed aboard an airplane at Roosevelt airfield on Long Island and took off for Paris.  There was a $25000 prize for the first person to do it.  Two well-financed teams had already come to tragic watery catastrophes in the Atlantic already that year.  Charles Lindbergh had 4 sandwiches, 2 canteens of water, and 451 gallons of gasoline aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, named in honor of his backers. No radio, no parachute to conserve weight.

When we say air field, that’s what it was and Roosevelt airfield was so muddy that Lindbergh barely cleared the telephone lines at the end of the field.  Though 500 well-wishers had seen him off, major newpapers scoffed at his effort and homemade plane. For the next 33 ½ hours, Lindbergh bounced through storms and over icebergs.  He flew into fog for awhile, bitter cold and his wings iced badly.  Finally he spotted fishing boats.  Was he close to land?  Flying low, about 200 feet, he cut the engine and yelled, “Which way to Ireland?”  The fishermen pointed to the east.  He battled fatigue, holding his eyes open with his fingers.  From Ireland he crossed England and found Cherbourg and the Seine River.  Finally the lights of Paris came into view about 10 pm.  There were no lights at the airfield and Lindbergh said this made him extremely cautious, overshooting the field by 3 miles before he turned around and headed back.  But you see, the news of the crazy American kid heading for Paris had traveled to the city by that time and 100,000 motorists had cranked their cars and lined both sides of the runway with their lights on, cheering wildly as he touched down. He had done what no one else had done—solo flight, New York to Paris. 

The French saw in Lindbergh their heroic American. He had quiet integrity and courage, and an indifference to honor they loved in the Yanks.  It seemed everybody in America saw themselves in him, an adventurer, an achiever, full of hope.  He was given the largest ticker tape parade in New York in history.  President Coolidge presented him with the Congressional Medal of Honor.

But the real effect of Lindbergh’s flight was more mundane.  Up until then aviation was thought to be the realm of dare-devils and barnstormers.  It was nothing for a prudent person to engage in.  But, heck, if some kid could climb into a plane and fly to Paris, maybe this aviation wasn’t so nutty after all.  Commercial aviation blossomed.  The Military and the Postal Service began to pursue flying full tilt.  Going into the sky quickly became accepted.  And France had finally passed the torch.  Ever since the Reformation, France had been the country of new technology, and in the 19^th century, even without stable government, French engineers and scientists had stunned the world with their discoveries, buildings and feats.  But with Lindbergh, it was now America’s turn.

WWTD part II

The heck of it is, we’ve seen this experiment in Japan and Europe.  Lowering interest rates to almost zero yielded negative consequences. 

            You think if Trump is elected, he’s going to make the economy roar?  Think again.  For the past 40 years, central banks around the world have been able to print money almost at will and after this last recession it went koo-koo.  The real hockey stick graph isn’t global warming, it’s money printing, better known as Adjusted Monetary Base.  It went from $200B in 1985 gradually to $800B in 2008 but it is $4.5 trillion today.  The Fed, bowing to Obama, has cut interest rates to virtually zero.  That is, the pure political play of Democrats is to blame the other party for recessions while mortally afraid of a recession on their watch. Hoovervilles. Bush’s fault. The Fed kept lowering rates, then QE money printing, stoking stimulus, amassing debt. Of course the old model is to raise interest to fight inflation and lower it to fight recession.  But here we are with 1.8% GDP growth and no way to lower interest if a recession comes along.  Worse, lowering rates no longer stimulates.

            How does this happen?  Well, first think what happens to some of our business models.  Insurance companies use money they get in premiums to invest and make money from which they pay claims.  If interest is zero—no investment gains-- this model fails.  Or pension providers estimate what they can pay in the future based on what they are getting from invested funds today.  No interest, no future pension.  When interest goes to zero, seniors get no gain on their life savings.  Zero interest destroys savers and savers are the bedrock of capitalism.

            But there are more horrors.  What if those individual savers put it under a mattress?  With no deposits, banks can make no loans and the system starts to collapse.  Obama piled up debt, thinking that traditionally governments have escaped the consequences by inflating -- paying off debt  with future dollars worth much less.  But what if you keep lowering interest and it has no effect in restarting the economy, companies and savers see the futility of taking on risk? Basically you get an economy where money returns nothing--Japan ever since 1992, Europe since 2007, USA dangerously close now.

            Yet there is a way out.  It takes a little pain over a long period of time.  Interest rates must be raised gradually until we get our economy back again.  That probably means a 2% Fed Funds rate and 3.5% return on a ten-year bond.

            Well, you raise interest and suddenly far fewer people can qualify for a mortgage on those high-priced houses in urban areas. (Ever ask yourself how those couples on HGTV can afford million dollar homes with median income at $54,000?) Bonds, already trading far too high (people are scared of the politics and the economy and have fled to bonds), will plunge in price.  Effects like this give politicians the heeby-jeebies over backlash.  So the rise in rates must be gradual.  Hence the Trump economy won’t rise fast.  At least his ideas of lowering corporate tax rates are good.  The foolish demand that the federal government get a cut of foreign profits from businesses is one of the great killers of bringing profits home to America. It makes no sense except to covetous Dems who hate businessmen.  A subtext of Hillary and Obama is that they hold that government is the best manager of investment capital. Sure.  Solyndra.  Solar Trust. Postal Service.  But the teeth-gritting Dems persist.  The rules for inversion mergers and capital repatriation are constantly changed by Obama’s executive orders.  Thus US corporations must add the risk of arbitrary tax persecution to the other uncertainties of staying in business.

            Given the debt overhang, the money printed, the states' pension liabilities, the reluctant investors, the rest of the world in secular stagnation (zero interest/low growth), the need for tax reform that depends on reticent politicians, we won’t come out of this thing very fast.

            Imagine the difference if such politicians cared about growth.  Corporate taxes and capital gains rates would be zero—and actual revenue loses wouldn’t be that great.  Foreign profits would be encouraged to come home.  They wouldn’t try to tell the bozo voters that recessions are due to the other party’s leadership but would state the real reason—due to billions of bad decisions made by millions in the marketplace bidding prices too high, i.e., the madness of crowds.  Banks could go back to being community lenders instead of trying to play the government for favors. The pols would be very leery of mortgaging the future with debt.  And jobs would be plentiful again, growth would return, people would save.

 And if you aspired to run a great foundation, you wouldn’t model yourself after a Secretary of State who exchanges policy favors for donations.  If you wanted to be a great real estate developer, you wouldn’t get there by playing footsie with local governments for tax favors and eminent domain. And all of America would want to hear about freedom and liberty, not what they qualify for, or who they could scapegoat.  

Called

Long before I was in politics, I was a Christian. Christianity motivates my politics enormously.  When Trump said he never asked God for forgiveness because he hadn’t done anything wrong, I choked pretty hard.  That seems the antithesis of Christian faith.  And I write this having once said that I would support even an atheist if they were very principled. But maybe I need to give Trump some space. Donald, you want to explain this?

            Here’s how it was explained to me.  Beth Moore has almost this same expository in her Bible study on Isaiah.  Smarter heads than I can explain it better.  In Isaiah 43:1, God speaks in poetry, “Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.” That is, we are called out.  It may seem like we were seeking, but truth be known, God pulled our string.  “Love that found me wondrous thought.  Found me when I sought Him naught.” Charles Wesley put it.  For the people reading in 700 BC, they understood ‘called by My name’ to be Israel, God’s renaming of Jacob (a huge step up from his name which means “cheater”). And down through the generations, God introduces himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To us Christians, we too have been named ‘little Christs’ as the label means in Greek. 

            Skip down to verse 7.  “Everyone who is called by my name, Whom I created for My glory, Whom I formed and made…”  So what is God’s name?  In Genesis, He is introduced as Elohim, plural of El or “God”.  35 more times in Genesis 1-4 Elohim is used.  Why plural?  Does this imply multiple gods?  By no means.  Jewish scholars say that the plural is multiplied majesty, a literary device.  But then God actuates this “Let us make man in our image.”  Though indivisible and One, leaves the possibility of some sort of multiplicity, which we Christians know as the Trinity.  Over and over, Elohim rescues his chosen people.  This is the Saving God.  “Deliver us, O God of our salvation.” I Chr. 16:36.  Then in Exodus, this same God identifies as the God of the forefathers, but Moses asks His name.  “I am that I am,” He replies.  This is abbreviated YHWH in Hebrew scriptures but our modern Bibles substitute “the Lord” whenever it occurs.  This was because when the Hebrews read the scripture, they substituted “Adonai” or “Lord” which happens when you put vowels in and YHWH becomes Yahweh (and then in the Middle Ages it morphed into Jehovah).  Yahweh was used as a third person name so it really is more likely translated “He who causes to be”.  The reader in 700 BC would identify as called by Elohim, and Yahweh to be Israel.  Once again, the God who saves.  The Jewish first commandment is, “I am the Lord (YHWH) your God (ELohim), who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Ex. 20:2.

            We were created for His glory.  “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”Is.40:5.  Two things.  First, it was public. The only event in scripture that was fulfilled to be God’s glory and in public was Jesus’ death and resurrection. God’s greatest glory is thus explained.  It isn’t His creation of the universe, or His seat in heaven. It is His salvation for us, the unlikeliest turn of events in history.  The author entered the play, solved the dilemma of sin and triumphed.  But there is more.

“ I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness.  I have taken you by the hand and kept you.” Is. 42:6.  This is also the God of relationship.  Calls us out and doesn’t let go of our hand.  No matter what we have done, He keeps coming back in hot pursuit of us.  He told Moses, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what to speak.” Ex.4:12

            Then came the bombshell for the people of that day who saw the God of Israel as just the best god among many.  “Before Me no god was formed, Nor shall there be any after me.  I, I am the Lord and besides me there is no Savior. Is 43:12.  Psst! He’s the only God!

            But why does the only God make contact with us?  Already Isaiah has said, “All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, …but the word of our God will stand forever.”  Is.40:6,8. And ‘He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” Is. 40:22.  The landlord in me wants to say ‘cockroaches’ but God chose ‘grasshoppers’, a plague that any farmer can understand.  So vile, pesky, and utterly without any redemptive feature!  That’s us. Yet the words continue in Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for My Own sake, And I will remember your sins no more.” Here then is the God who loves.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

            I am just plain thrilled to be a “whosoever”

Impeachment

Well, they finally impeached the President.  A former Marxist when young, the President ran on a centrist ticket of the party of the left and is now near the end of a second term.  The House passed an impeachment order yesterday and the trial now goes to the Senate.  At issue is the fact that the President cooked the books on employment statistics and national debt to make the country look like it was financially healthier.  What, you missed this news?  I’m talking about Dilma Rouseff, Pres. of Brazil.  Her Workers Party has demanded the impeachment of the 3 former Presidents but now claims this is nothing but a sexist right wing conspiracy.  The false statistics tried to hide 35 times as much budget deficit as was actual and unemployment was double the stated statistics.  Now that she is under impeachment trial, she is forced to step down from the office allowing the Veep to hold it until the trial is concluded.

            But, you say, nothing like this has occurred in our history.  Why, we promised not to impeach Obama!