The $1 Bank Robber

This is a most unusual bank robber:

That is how Verone said he came to the decision to rob the RBC bank on New Hope Road on Thursday, June 9.

He didn’t have a gun and he handed the teller a rather unusual note.

"The note said ‘This is a bank robbery. Please only give me one dollar,’" Verone said.

Then he did the strangest thing of all.

"I started to walk away from the teller, then I went back and said, 'I'll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police," Verone said.

        ...

Verone said he doesn’t have medical insurance. He has a growth of some sort on his chest, two ruptured disks and a problem with his left foot. He is 59-years-old and with no job and a depleted bank account, he thought jail was the best place he could go for medical care and a roof over his head.

A sign of the times.

Energy Independence

Charles Hugh Smith at Two Minds had a guest blogger yesterday:

The Bush Administration may have made a strategic error when it chose a primarily military response to 9/11. We’ve spent a couple trillion dollars in the decade since with precious little to show for the expense and effort. Would a national effort to develop renewable energy have had a greater impact? Probably not at the time—the slow pace of technological progress could not have competed with the primal thrill of military conquest.

But the tangible benefits of a renewable energy thrust would certainly be evident by now. Lower dependence on foreign oil imports, the rise of new technologies, the creation of new businesses and new jobs and a sense of a hope for a better future might be apparent today had the leadership of the time embraced the long view. And it could have been accomplished for a fraction of what we’ve paid to date for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The link I posted on Saturday got a lot of discussion on Facebook. One point was that there was an advantage to energy independence and that the Chevy Volt helps in this. I think that energy independence should be a national goal. This will require tariffs, which is not mentioned in the article at Two Minds. A good read anyway. 

Ben Bernanke's Spiritual Ancestor

This is something on the light side of things for a lazy Sunday morning. 

This "economist" from the 30's actually makes more sense than our current crop of "economists." 

The Chevy Volt

I remember being excited about the Chevy Volt. I was wrong. While we want a society that is more sustainable, government environmental policies are part of the problem not part of the solution. The online magazine Liberty Unbound:

The Chevy Volt, to cite one example, can travel 35 miles on its fully charged 16 kWhbattery. Thus, charging the battery by means of the average US power plant creates 19.2 pounds of CO₂; in effect, 0.55 pounds of CO₂ per mile. The EPA rates the Volt's gas-only fuel economy as 37 mpg. Since a gallon of gasoline produces about 19.6 pounds of CO₂ , the Volt produces 0.53 pounds of CO₂ per mile. Incredibly, the Volt's carbon footprint is 0.02 pounds per mile larger when powered by its battery — another electrical mystery.

Sometimes it is the appearance of environmental progress that is more important than the reality. A Volt might make you feel better about yourself, but is does not help the environment. 

The article concludes with this analogy:

This plan is a costly, inane indulgence in fantasy. If the curtain were pulled back, it would reveal a fatuous illusionist, feverishly operating the levers of subsidies, tax credits, and regulatory mandates to orchestrate the scam.

Read the whole article, it is worth your time. 

Is God Sovereign?

Chip Ingram, well-known author with a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary, says this at Christianity.com:

"What does the phrase “God is sovereign” really mean? ... Nothing is too difficult for Him, and He orchestrates and determines everything that is going to happen in your life, in my life, in America, and throughout the world."

Thunderbirds Are Go!Is God really the divine puppet master that predetermines all things? Is this even remotely close to what the Bible teaches? To accomplish this misinterpretation, scripture must be stretched way past the breaking point. In this same article Chip says this:

Even Satan himself has to ask God’s permission before he can act (Psalm 103:19).

I wonder how many actually look the scripture up?

19The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

While it is certainly possible that this is a mistaken scriptural reference, one has to wonder. My long experience with religious articles has taught me one thing, never trust that the scripture quoted actually says what the author says it says. Look it up.

Possibly Job 1 is what Chip had in mind:

9“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

While I personally look at Job as a story that is designed to make the point that it is God’s world and God’s rules, the idea here is not that God controls Satan. It is that God had protected Job. The implication is that there are others whom he has not protected. People actually think that God and Satan had some sort of contest where God kills (remember that God controls/causes every event) Job’s entire family, just to prove a point. Is this really the way the world works?

I will on occasion download a podcast from various religious podcasters. One that I listened to caused me to laugh. After a long spiel about how God controls everything, he told the story of the local atheist who claimed to be more moral than many Christians because he was faithful to his wife. The podcaster said that no, he was not moral, because he had rejected God. But if the previous statements of the podcaster were accurate then the atheist had not rejected God, but God had rejected him since before the foundation of the world, God had chosen this person to be an atheist. If so, then how could the atheist be responsible for his actions?

There are just too many scriptures that make no sense if God is the master puppeteer--including the entire book of Jonah, and most of the stories in Genesis.

My friend Eric Anderson blogs at Universe of Lies, usually on economic issues. But on a private religious forum he said this:

Exit Babylon Now!God is not responsible for individual choices. God is responsible for giving the ability to make those choices, which choices have consequences. Is God responsible for all those consequences? This is difficult. On a higher level, yes. Specifically and directly, no.

I agree with Eric.

If you are a fatalist then you will never leave Babylon.  God wants you to leave, but it must be your decision. He will not force you.