Look At It This Way (#LAITW)

Getting at the truth can be daunting, especially knowing that much of what we think we know to be true may not be true.

1. Humans evolved from apes.
2. Milk builds strong bones.
3. Eating ice cream when you have a cold makes you more congested.
4. Sugar makes children hyperactive.
5. The 5-second rule applies to food dropped on the floor.
6. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
7. Honey is healthier for you than refined sugar.
8. Sharks do not get cancer.
9. Sharks must continually swim or they die.
10. Frogs give you warts.
11. Bats are blind.
12. Poinsettias can kill you.
13. Organic fruits and vegetables are safer and more nutritious.
14. Dropping a coin from the Empire State Building could kill a person.
15. Lightning never strikes the same place twice.
16. Water conducts electricity.
17. Diamonds are formed from coal.
18. People in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat.
19. Carrots give you better vision.
20. Hair and nails grow even after you die.
21. You only use 10% of your brain.
22. Right brain is creative, left brain is logical.
23. Drink eight glasses of water a day.
24. Drinking alcohol kills brain cells.
25. Outer space is freezing cold.

The full article is here.

“Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.”

Walter E. Williams

This is one of those tomes that I’ve managed to avoid all my life. Disadvantage me. I got motivated to give it a go when then men’s reading group at church (which I cannot attend due to timing) took it up. So, after the intro and three full chapters, I’m all in. Pretty heavy, lots of references, fascinating ideas, phrases that turn in all manner of ways. Very religious, obviously, so don’t be surprised. I even got excited telling Lynn she might want to plow through the first chapter or two because of the babyhood, parenting, learning, discipline, and related topics covered.

It was 10 years ago today that Al Gore predicted the Earth had 10 years left before global warming (as it was referred to back then) would have scorched us out.

Can anyone name a doomsday prediction about any leftist nonsense (population, global warming, oil, etc.) that did come true? If you’re not paying attention to results, you are doomed to repeat being sucked into the nonsense, and dragging the rest of us with you. How many disastrous policies were put in place based at least in part on nonsense claims like this? Let me answer that. On a daily basis the economy is peppered with rules and regulations that do NOTHING other than stifle the economy. Because of that, a lot of poor people stay poor while the rich demagogues in power jet away to golf in Hawaii. The only thing that stands a chance of helping the poor (and everyone else, too) is a robust economy generating lots of wealth.

So, is everyone OK?

A Facebook post this morning said something <sarcasm>oh so meaningful</sarcasm> about how one should not have to pay for a mistake the rest of their life. A mistake just means we’re human.

So, assuming there is a cost associated with a mistake, who does get to pay for it until zeroed out? Parents? Siblings? Friends? Schools and/or Churches? Goverment? Society?

Sorry, Jack, you do get to pay for your mistakes. Whether accidental or intentional. Whether big or small. That’s why we (should) spend so much time raising children to learn what’s right and wrong and to appreciate the physics of careening downhill on two sticks of wood or carbon fiber. Consequences! The nasty bottom line is – even if you’re not to blame exactly, you get to pay for your own mistakes. Hopefully, folks learn their lessons early on in life when the costs are relatively cheap.

Well, maybe you can get someone else to pay. Ask a liberal. It won’t be me if I can help it.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why people who hate big business love big government. At least with big business I can choose not to do business with them. Try choosing not to pay your taxes as a “customer” of government.

Even God gives each individual the option to do business with him. Or not.

What a wonderful Christmas experience. I’m something of a Christmas connoisseur – movies, songs, books, versions, from the very warped (like Bad Santa) to the disgustingly sweet (like some movies on “that” channel can get). I’ve studied St. Nicholas, even wrote and performed a short 1-act about him. I thought I had seen every angle there was.

This book is altogether different, captivating, inspiring, thought-provoking. I guarantee you’ve never contemplated the Christmas Story from this angle, let alone St. Nick’s story. I couldn’t put it down, about 4 hours straight through; good thing it was something of a lazy Saturday afternoon (after adding some Christmas lights to the back deck).

Just get it and read it. You can thank me later.

Are you a God person? Or a Nature person? Or some sort of in-the-middle spiritual person?

It really doesn’t matter. Either way, we did not create ourselves. “The World” (whoever, whatever, however) created us just like everything else was created. Whatever we do is perfectly natural. We (human beings) are as much a part of nature as anything else.

So, what separates us from the animals? I offer this. All living things are survivalists. All living things kill/destroy other things to eat, live, etc.

So, what separates us from everything else? Humans have decided (most of the ones I know, anyway) that we have a right to survival, but not at the un-do expense of others. We have a right to kill others if others threaten mortal harm. We have a right to eat animals and plants as long as we’re prudent and conservative about it. We do not have a right to take from others, period. Can you wrap your mind around the fact that starving is not an excuse to steal in the human world, but is for anything else?

It may seem a subtle difference, but it means everything. Both ways.

Trump suggests we stop allowing Muslim immigrants for a while to give us time to sort things out. And the left/media go nuts. People have no notion of laws in place and history (you all might review 1952, and the 40-year period after the world war.

You mean fear women and children like the mother of an infant that took out 14 people in San Bernardino? Yes.

Oh, and one last thing. Did you know you Obama blocked Christian refugees from entering the country? I see.

Really, if you have some religious issue with the red cup (you know the one, see the image), you need to get a life. No one, zero persons, in my circle of Christian friends has an issue with the red cup. Is it really an issue, or did this get Trumped up somehow (no pun intended; well, maybe).

I don’t think there’s ever been anything particularly Christian about the red cup. It just happens that darn near everyone celebrates Christmas in this country for one reason or another, and many of them are not religious reasons. It’s in many ways a secular holiday. Or certainly has a secular side. And the red cup has always celebrated the secular Christmas.

I do think this year’s red cup is boring compared to most previous iterations. Oh well.