iPandora

The Gospel According To Lost

The Gospel According To Lost is not an explanation on how to use the stories and characters and ideas of the hit TV series Lost to witness to people. It’s so much more than that.

It’s a relatively short read for the size of the book. Clearly written considering the depth of the subjects it deals with. And it makes me want to finish the series.

Readers of this blog and friends know that I’m deeply concerned about the deeper things in life. Actions and externalities interest me, but intent, thought, background, worldview and philosophy hold my attention far longer.

The Gospel According To Lost is a book exploring the deeper things of that TV series from an explicitly Christian perspective.

From Hurley to Locke to Ekko and everyone between and beyond, The Gospel According To Lost explores the characters beyond their surface. Jack’s super-hero complex. Sayed’s assurance that he is beyond redemption. Kate’s inability to get beyond her terrible past.

And then it shows how the growth in each character embodies a growth we can empathize and sympathize with. We’ve either been there ourselves or we can see it as normal to the human condition. And it all revolves around a redemptive process. Some experience redemptive change, some cannot make that leap and so are left grasping in futility.

I recommend this book for anyone who loves the TV series Lost, for anyone who enjoys great literature for it’s character depth and wants an exploration of characterization in a newer medium, and for anyone seeking to understand an icon of our popular culture which has with such strength and depth provided this intriguing and complex look into each of our hearts and lives.

Or if you just want to see how the grand scope of the Bible can be effectively applied to our modern lives in a constructive and informative way, The Gospel According To Lost is for you.

Unrestricted free market

Gary A writes article on the investing opinion site SeekingAlpha.com claiming that while limited government sounds good, it’s not a reasonable policy if the goal is market stability:

I support the free market but unlike them I don’t trust the free market. I don’t think that having just capitalists in charge of the free market can possibly keep it free very long. Capitalists cannot police themselves. Every game has rules. Try playing baseball without umpires. Try playing tennis without line judges. There are even rules when racing at the Indianapolis 500.

I agree with him, to an extent:

I agree that having capitalists in charge of capitalism can and has caused many a problem. Having Marxists in charge of a market causes even more.

The issue is that there is no suitable force acting upon the individuals that make up a government capable of restraining their choices actions.

And the more levels of government that are constructed to check and balance any system of man only lead to more levels of waste and corruption as they, in turn, fall to the very same forces.

The brilliance of the original American system was that it pitted this thirst for power against itself by building three branches of government with competing but not overlapping responsibilities.

This system worked well enough, for in that inherent tension there was stability left for those under it.

As the government’s greatest enemy was itself, instead of the people, the people were free to go about their ways.

As the government power alignment adjusted, mainly beginning with Lincoln’s power consolidation in the Civil war the forces of government were aligned and now could seek to take power, not from each other, but from the populace.

So is it a perfect system? No. Is it better than the alternatives? It depends on how you define better. I would say it is, with better being that state where there is least government intrusion into my affairs and then only so much as is necessary to prevent me from infringing unjustly on another’s affairs.

Of course, then you get into what is just and unjust.

The whole problem is that unless you accept a sovereign moral force who/which defines morality for us unsovereign beings, there is really no way to define right except through might.

Those in power get to define morality apart from that sovereign moral entity. And without an acceptance of a sovereign moral entity there is no legitimate basis for a universal and effective set of ethics to guide the behaviors of individuals, groups, corporations, societies, or nations.

Yes, I believe it all boils down to whether or not you subscribe to the idea there is a higher power who will judge you for your actions and your intentions and the results.

Run away!

Vowing to “reverse the overall erosion in middle class security” President Obama is trying to reconnect with us poor plebes left out in the cold with all this uncertainty.

Probably because he’s had his pants handed to him more often than he’s done the handing this year, and mostly because of massive levels of policy-specific disapproval in the middle class, he’s trying to make good enough to not have it handed to him again in upcoming elections.

His pet projects to engender warm fuzzies in my quivering breast (Ok, that sounded a little weird): use my money to pay for every other poor schmucks child care, retirement, student loans, and elderly parents.

In other words, if you’re living outside your means such that you need more than one parent can make, if your primary retirement plan is to play the lottery, if you’re attending a college you can’t afford, and if your parents had the same problems, you get my money to square your books.

Yup. I’ve got all kinds of warm fuzzies here for you, Mr. President.

This is what’s called a buy out. President Roosevelt (Franklin Delano, to be exact) was master at this, pitting party against party, class against class.

The problem here is that I’m middle class and I’m not going to be taking advantage of any of these programs, which means, by default, I’ll be getting taken advantage of.

See where all these warm fuzzies are coming from? They’re certainly not Tribbles.

Here’s my (unsolicited) suggestions, Mr. President. Back off. Stay away. Shut my pocket book. Quit meddling.

Why don’t I like being meddled with?

People don’t like to be meddled with.
We tell them what to do, what to think.
Don’t run, don’t walk.
We’re in their homes and in their heads and we haven’t the right.
We’re meddlesome.

Line 4 there folks, “we haven’t the right” (Thanks to River Tam and Serenity for the above wisdom).

I’m most comfortable when I’m left alone (by the government) to do as I ought. That is an important distinction from doing as I like. The government does have responsibility to constrain those who do as they like to the detriment of those who haven’t liked what was done to them. Government has no right to do as they like to those who’d rather be left to do as they ought.

Thankfully, I don’t believe Mr. President, for all his awesome rhetorical ability, is former President Clinton. He’ll not be able to communicate this program in any way that will make it appear less than it is to those who care.

President Clinton actually changed his policies when he say how the chips fell against him. He became downright conservative in his fiscal policies and beguiled enough to remain in power.

President Obama has too much blood in the game, is too invested in his Marxist ideology to change his policies, and so he is left only to dress them up. Which is something he can only do to himself with any success.

The New York Times highlights, of course, that this is nowhere near the levels of rainbows and unicorns promised during the campaign:

Mr. Biden rejected criticism that the proposals Mr. Obama was unveiling were relatively small-bore compared with the vast and sweeping measures he pushed during his first year in office. “They’re big-deal things if you’re just able to give some respite for a husband and wife, both working, to give a little bit of help,” Mr. Biden said.

So no one is happy with President Obama now.

Darn.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on how he’s concerned about the middle class. What about the lower class? What about the upper class? Aren’t they all American’s too? The middle class must be the biggest, most homogeneous voting bloc.

Kudos to Harry Reid?

Harry Reid is proposing putting the force of law behind rules already on the books requiring all future obligations Congress saddles us with to be funded prior to enactment.

Congress already lives within similar budget rules but routinely waives them. However, the new rules would carry the force of law and be enforced by the threat of across-the-board spending cuts if they are violated.

Apparently he’s a rather unwilling convert to the idea, being pressured by the “blue-dog” Democrats who tend to hold to more fiscally sound ideas while maintaining a (D) after their name.

These rules are similar to those enacted in the 90′s which helped contribute to the balanced budget of ’98. Those rules expired in ’02 and have not been re-upped.

So kudos to Senator Reid. I’ll think a few happy thoughts about you after you are forced out by a landslide defeat in your next election.

Democrats have been pulled to the left, to the left.

And I’d welcome a move to the right from them. Sure, it’s harder to tell people apart when they’re so similar, but the fights aren’t quite as “end of the world” as they are when there are such polar opposites at stake.

Senator Evan Bayh (D)

Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana prescribes such a move to save the party of the donkey from a potential rout in upcoming elections.

President Obama should, according to Bayh, “draw a line in the sand on spending” and promise vetoes for bills that exceed those limits. Yea, with you there. I’d like that.

Democrats are “tone deaf” to what people are really saying in the ballot boxes and around water coolers:

It is amazing that some people here in Congress still don’t get it.…For those people it may take a political catastrophe of biblical proportions before they get it. I don’t think we’ll get to that. But we might.

Senator Bayh has good reason for his warnings, he’s up for reelection. And with the public increasingly understanding the national import of even local elections, he’s liable to get thrown out as any other Democrat, especially as his fellow Hoosiers tend strongly to the conservative.

So he chides Washington Democrats for being “out of touch”, for being foolhardy in spending, for not passing the best jobs policies, namely tax-cuts for small businesses.

He isn’t sure bashing banks will bring real economic improvement to average Americans, and he staunchly opposes denying Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke a second term. He said he prefers “positive populism” in the form of, for example, more aggressive moves to create jobs and lower college costs. Above all, he wants that presidential line in the sand on spending and deficits.

Keep up the good advice Evan. I’ll think higher of you than I think of Harry Reid after you’ve been ousted too. Or perhaps you can join the party you belong in and put that pen to use where we actually believe in those things.

It just might save your bacon come November.

Oh, and I really can’t end even this post without digging some at Harry. I’m feeling a little icky after congratulating Senator Reid above.

Feeling better now.

Rajendra K. Pachauri

Or was it “I lie to get paid”?

The U.N. climate chief presided over a report which has been used to justify huge increases in U.N. spending on certain pet projects of the climate lobby which has been found to be, um, faulty.

The factual inaccuracies were found prior to the climate change conferences which were full of attempts to globalize governments, spend more money on pet projects, and various other things, and yet they were not corrected or retracted before the conference.

So now, understandably, there are calls for this scientist-cum-bad liar/opportunist (hey, sounds like the majority of people calling for more government control in the name of global cooling, or was that warming?) to step down, and he won’t.

Because there are no external moral forces compelling him to act morally, his own power and desires are his only guiding light.

So we strip his power and/or shame him.

Oh, did I mention the climate panel Rajendra heads won a Nobel Prize for that lie report?

Charles' Scartlett Letter

YaVaughnie Wilkins posted the signs after she learned that her lover, Charles E. Phillips — president and director of the tech conglomerate Oracle Corporation and a member of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board — had reconciled with his wife, the New York Post reported.

Charles E. Phillips has a 10 year old son, has had an 8-1/2 year “serious relationship” with Wilkins, and is a “family man”.

That means he’s “loved” this woman almost as long as he’s had a son. Consider the implications of that.

He’s a creep, untrustworthy, etc.

Well, he’s worthy of something, social disapprobation and shaming.

Which is exactly what YaVaughnie did. For the wrong reasons, yea. But I’m begging and not feeling particularly choosie.

Read about her billboards.

Wes from Reason To Stand shared this video on Facebook.

I completely agree that pornography is very drug-like in it’s effects. It’s addictive, it changes your body’s natural patterns and how your body expects to fulfill certain needs.

Check out FightTheNewDrug.com.

Colonel Joseph "Joe" Nelson

Grace’s grandpa died this morning.

Marine Colonel Joseph “Joe” Nelson (Ret.) passed away while in a coma he’d fallen into while sleeping during the night.

He knew Christ Jesus as his Savior and Lord.

And he was a hero of the armed forces of the United States of America.

Colonel Joe was a veteran of 3 wars, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He observed the atom bomb exploding over Nagasaki from the cockpit of this fighter plane. He was a member of the Marine Observation Squadron 6 (VMO-6) and commanded them in Vietnam for much of 1967. During his tenure as commander of VMO-6 there were no fatalities despite hard fighting.

During his command of VMO-6 one of his men, Major Stephen M. Pless, earned the Medal of Honor for action protecting soldiers under heavy attack on a beach in Mai Lai and several others were recognized with lesser commendations.

Colonel Joe spent the last years of his life in deteriorating health due to exposure to chemical agents during the Vietnam War.

My son William is his great grandson. Due to the generosity of family, Grace and William were able to fly to North Carolina to spend some brief time with Colonel Joe the day before he died.

I did not know Colonel Joe personally. Grace and I were planning a trip to visit her granddad and grandmother once I’d found longer-term employment. I know he was a human, and prone to all the failures of humankind. However, he was and remained to the end and strong and decent man. Well respected in the community around his home near the Marine Base.

Grace and her siblings were recognized as “Colonel Joe’s grandkids” by all they met when visiting their grandparents, speaking to the honor and respect the Colonel received.

ValorRemembered.org chronicles much of the action surrounding VMO-6 and the Pless Medal of Honor episode. It describes Colonel Joe this way:

Colonel Nelson is a veteran of three major wars, and untold other actions.  During World War II he flew fighters in the Pacific and witnessed the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki from the cockpit of his fighter.  He fought again in the Korean War.  In Vietnam he was first put in charge of the construction of the air base at Chu Lai.  He commanded VMO-6 for most of 1967, a period of time when the squadron was heavily engaged in combat throughout the I Corps area.  Despite numerous hard fought battles with the enemy, not a single member of his squadron was killed while Joe Nelson was in charge.  After leaving VMO-6 Colonel Nelson was assigned the task of preparing a contingency plan for the final evacuation of American personnel from Saigon.   Years later  Colonel Nelson’s plan was followed in the actual evacuation under fire of the thousands of American and Vietnamese from Saigon.

So Colonel Joe has gone to meet his Maker, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, from whose mouth he hears those words of honor and praise “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the rest I have prepared for you.”

Colonel Joe standing on the wing of a Corsair fighter he flew in his early days as a Marine aviator.

UPDATE: Colonel Joe’s obituary in the New Bern Sun Journal:

(Colonel Joe) is survived by his wife of 65 years, Virginia Nelson; two sons, Dan Nelson and wife, Judith, of Dallas, Texas, and Dr. David Nelson and wife, Sheila, of Birmingham, Ala.; and one daughter, Susan Sauer and husband, Dr. Ronald Sauer, of Wheaton, Ill.; 10 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

Moral equivalence is such a strange and ugly beast.

Consider this comment in a thread on one of the more entertaining sites on the internet:

And that response is exactly what is necessary, were we still living in a culture that predominantly believed in absolute truth and real morality and ethics.

Seeing joy in everything

Equating a person’s feelings for their cat bred with respiratory issues from a shortened snout with society’s considering mentally deficient people special, either as a politically correct label or as a true measure of our regard for that person, is pure and simple evil.

This is, no doubt, a person who’s in favor of aborting children if they’re found in pre-birth testing to be potentially mentally retarded or suffering from some other deficiency.

I’m glad there are people in the world willing to adopt these special children when their own parents do not consider themselves up to the task and that there are people willing to accept these children and give them full and rich lives.

So to this person who would deprive this world of the joy and delight that are people who have been blessed with something other than a sound mind, I say shame on you.

So many people hold so stridently to such silly ideas…