Lulu was right to be skeptical about Willy's new found community. We humans are herd animals for the most part. If we cannot form an appropriate herd, we will invent one. Thus we invent government as an artificial community.
When God brought His people to the Promised Land, no national government was established. There were still institutions that we might recognize as government administrated by the Levites, but no king, no standing army, and no taxes!
But Israel became afraid and wanted a king like everyone else. In Samuel 8 The Message tells us what God predicted would be the result of this desire.
10-18 So Samuel told them, delivered God’s warning to the people who were asking him to give them a king. He said, “This is the way the kind of king you’re talking about operates. He’ll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He’ll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He’ll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He’ll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He’ll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he’ll take for his own use. He’ll lay a tax on your flocks and you’ll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves. But don’t expect God to answer.”
19-20 But the people wouldn’t listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We will have a king to rule us! Then we’ll be just like all the other nations. Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles.”
Since humans feel safer in groups this was understandable. But in the analogy I am using it would be like all the sheep getting together and appointing the local wolves to protect them from foreign wolves. Yes, every April 15 every sheep gets sheared. Yes, sheep mysteriously disappear. But we are safe!
So while there is no way to avoid the shearing this April 15, I suggest a low profile to avoid being a target otherwise. The purpose of "our" government is not the best interests of the people. It is the best interests of the wolves that matters. Hiring new wolves will not help.
This is actually a picture of the restaurant. I do not like telling people what to do. This may come as a shock to people that know me, as I am somewhat opinionated. But while I may express my opinion that the Chicken Pot Pie at the Daily Grill at LAX is great, I will not be upset if you order the New York Steak sandwich. (BTW I did this myself last week when I took my wife to the airport. What a miss steak.)
But as the saying goes, you can't beat something with nothing. So in this spirit let me offer a suggestion on a first step that one can make to try to improve one's diet. I hope you watched the video Food, Inc I embeded on the blog before Youtube canned it. If so, you should be thinking about how to improve your eating habits. (If you missed it you can get it on a physical DVD from Netflix.)
Drink water. Yes, I know the dangers of water expressed in the poster on the right—and remember that most people who die have consumed water in the previous 24 hours. But water is a great product, and cheap. What restaurants do is try to keep prices as cheap as possible and avoid crossing psychological pricing barriers like $9.99. But no one really notices that your soda costs $2.50. If there are two soda drinkers, and you eat out twice a week, that is $500 a year. At the end of this year would you rather have a bag of junk silver worth $500 or some very expensive urine excreted over the last year? Of course if you instead buy coffee at Starbucks you have not gained anything.
Researchers reported Tuesday that they have linked 180,000 obesity-related deaths worldwide to sugary drinks, including about 25,000 adult Americans.
Overall, 1 in 100 deaths of obese people globally can be blamed on too many sweetened beverages, according to a study presented at an American Heart Association scientific conference in New Orleans. Mexico leads the 35 largest nations in deaths attributable to over-consumption of sugary drinks, with the United States third. Japan, which has one of the lowest per-capita consumptions of sugary drinks, had the fewest sugar-related deaths.
There is however a big problem with this study: they are guessing. But is there anyone anywhere who thinks that soda drinks are “good” for you? They are at best neutral, and then only in modest amounts. Coke was originally sold as a “patent medicine”—and contained cocaine. (Nine milligrams per glass, according to some sources.) Once the cocaine was eliminated in 1903, it really was not a big deal. So what if you had 8 ounces of Coca-Cola at a drugstore a few times a month—that was not enough to harm you. But think about it. Gradually a few times a month became a few times a week. Eventually that became for many a few times a day. Also gradually the amount in a bottle, itself an innovation, went up—from 8 ounces to 12 to 16 to 20. The new 16.9 oz bottle is an attempt to raise prices, without appearing to raise prices. It is not as successful as they want.
I am not sure of the meaning of this photo. Will Coke make you younger?The Atlanta-based company confirmed Monday that it would introduce a line of zero-calorie, carbonated, fruit-flavored waters called “Fruitwater” starting April 1. The drink will be part of Coca-Cola’s Glaceau unit, which makes other pricier bottled waters such as Vitaminwater and Smartwater.
Unlike the zero-calorie version of Vitaminwater, which is made with the natural sweetener stevia, Fruitwater will be sweetened with the artificial sweetener sucralose, best known as Splenda. It will not contain any fruit juice but the bottle notes that the drink is “enhanced with nutrients,” a reference to its B vitamins, magnesium and zinc.
Wonderful. Well, at least it is a diet product. Nothing wrong with that right? I can only say that as an experiment of one that diet drinks have not helped me one bit. Why is this? I have this feeling that the sweetness is fooling my body into doing things that cause me to gain weight. Is the sweet taste causing me to produce insulin? Is this dropping my blood sugar and making me hungry? I have no idea, but I am suspicious.
Dr Kaplin comments:
A word of warning, he also is against milk. But the argument here is convincing.
I have had this unfinished post in my drafts area for some time—ever since I reviewed Dr Kaplin's book. But I decided I needed it to sit a while until I could experiment on myself. I have not had a Diet Coke for some time. I have not noticed a significant difference except that things that did not use to taste sweet now do so. Maybe it has not been long enough. What is the most interesting to me is that I have not missed it at all. That alone is reason enough to keep it out of my diet.
Would you wear this shirt as an honor? I am not saying that I will never have another Diet Coke. Traveling might be an issue, although it is not so far. Nor am I saying I will not buy a beverage in a restaurant from time to time. The $.65 ice tea at the local Greek restaurant seems a bargain.
Is the soda you drink good for you? A little here and there is not harmful, but I used to drink at least 64 ozs. a day. The thought of it today makes me cringe. What are you doing right now in terms of what you eat and drink that would make you cringe if you thought about it? I bet you already know the answer. The question is, will you act on your knowledge?
Looking at the world it is easy to get depressed. Everything is tinged with corruption. Food, money, bodies, minds, news, and the whole population are all over-processed.
Look at the Cyprus bank crisis: money is over-processed. Look in the mirror: are you over-processed? Are you watching the Kardashians? Benny Hinn? Fox News? Is your mind over-processed?
The system, The Man, "the powers that be," or Babylon as the Bible calls it, thinks itself immortal and immune. Revelation 18:7 tells us what she thinks:
In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.’
But we as Christians know the ultimate outcome as the next verse in Revelation tells us:
8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
If we are in Babylon we will suffer along with it. Verse 4 tells us:
“‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
My main purpose of this blog is to understand that we cannot avoid being in Babylon, but we can avoid being of Babylon. Babylon is extremely intrusive. To paraphrase the radio cartoon character Chickenman "It's everywhere. It's everywhere." One of my proudest blogging moments was a comment by fellow blogger Eric Anderson at Universe of Lies. Commenting on a post about the Agricultural Industrial Complex he said, "Only Dennis would see Babylon in a chicken sandwich—and he is right."
Yes, even food is over-processed, and it is depressing that there is not a whole lot that can be done about it. Yes, there are a few things you can do. Cook your own food. Know your food. Grow your food. Eat with thinking. It is depressing because most people will not bother. I have lost over 30 pounds mostly by just writing down what I eat in an e-journal called MyFitnessPal and thinking about my food choices. Do the best you can.
Do you think I am exaggerating the problem? If so watch this documentary, Food Inc. If anything, I have not talked about it enough. But be warned, unless you are doing a lot more about the food you eat than most Americans, you will be depressed too.
I am reminded of a story I read many years ago. A Chilean business owner had his business nationalized. They paid him a "fair" price. But he had no place to put the money, no credible investments. Because of capital controls, he could not put the money elsewhere. Added to this there was hyperinflation. He spent many of his evenings in a casino gambling.
In a world where there are no investments that make sense, what do you do?
MILAN (AP) -- Lamborghini says its worldwide deliveries of super sports cars rose 30 percent last year to 2,083 units but remained shy of pre-crisis highs.
The Italian carmaker owned by Volkswagen said Tuesday that deliveries were up by half in its top U.S. market and up by 34 percent in Europe despite the region's financial crisis.
Revenues for the year were up 46 percent to (EURO)469 million ($610 million).
The car company, based in Sant'Agata Bolognese, sold a record 2,430 cars in 2008 before the global economic crisis devastated the luxury market.
Last year's sales comprised 922 new Aventador LP 700-4 and 1,161 Gallardos.
Lamborghini previewed the one-off Lamborghini Veneno at the Geneva Motor Show last week to mark its 50th anniversary.
You do not need a Lamborghini to leave Babylon, in fact owning one will keep you in Babylon.
Here is the latest and greatest computer from Apple.
The new iMacThe reason the parody works is that Apple does have a tendency to place style over function. The current computer is a fine example of this. In Apple's mania for thinness and proprietary accessories they have managed to produce a new computer with less functionality than the previous one.
Apple decided that in order to keep its desktops thin they would remove the DVD player. Why in the world does anyone need a thin desktop? I do not spend all day looking at the end of my computer marveling about how thin it is. Yes you can buy an accessory that plays DVD's, but that takes up valuable desktop place. In addition, I do not know about you but the last thing I need on my desktop is more cords. I was an early adopter of CDRoms, I feel like I am going backwards.
It is not that I am "old fashioned," as was said in the Apple Keynote announcing these computers, in my desire for a DVD player. I need one.
Another thing I wanted to do was put the computer on a swivel so I could move it around. I do not want to be aggressively fussy, but the decision of Apple to make that impossible by insisting on a non-industry standard arm mount attachment is annoying. The Apple wall attachment does not allow you to move the computer around like I want.
Will I go ahead and buy the new computer? Probably, as switching costs are high. But Apple is shooting itself in its foot by letting style overwhelm function.
Monday, April 15, 2013 at 3:00AM 
Since humans feel safer in groups this was understandable. But in the analogy I am using it would be like all the sheep getting together and appointing the local wolves to protect them from foreign wolves. Yes, every April 15 every sheep gets sheared. Yes, sheep mysteriously disappear. But we are safe! 
