Digital Cowboy

I recently had a friend tell me that he was sure he was “on God’s shit list” now.

Nope. It’s not even possible. There is no such thing and I will freely condemn and spew vile at any religion that teaches such heresy.

A few weeks ago, I had another friend tell me that he wasn’t really sure if he was a Christian or not because “I still mess up so often.”

Damned religion.

I wish more churches preached the Gospel. The word means, “Good News.” Is it “good news” that you’re a sinner? Is it “good news” that you don’t measure up? Is it “good news” that you’re not perfect? That’s what many religious churches preach. Probably the second most often quoted verse in the Bible is “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Well, duh.

Do you wanna share the solution or do you just want to beat people over the head with the problem?

The answer to all those previous rhetorical questions is, “Nope. That’s not good news.” All those things are true, none of them are “good news” and that’s why Jesus Christ came. That’s the good news. No reasonably sane person has to be told that they don’t meet God’s standard. We all know that instinctively because we’re spiritual beings. I find it fascinating that John 3:16 is the most well-known and oft-quoted verse in the Bible, but it seems no one ever reads or quotes on into John 3:17. You can’t get the full message of the Gospel without them both.

Jesus didn’t come to condemn. The people you’re preaching to don’t need to be told they’re sinners. If they don’t already know it, they won’t believe you when you tell them. If they’re there listening to you, it’s because they are looking for the solution to that problem, not because they are unaware of it.

The Good News is that God doesn’t have a “shit list.” Even if He did, you wouldn’t be on it. There’s nothing you could do to get on it. Whether you’ve known Him and slipped away or never known Him, He’s still your loving Father watching and waiting for you to come home. Yeah, He knows what you’ve done. He doesn’t care because He’s already forgiven you.. He is love and He loves you. That’s good news.

There are 42 places in the Bible where you can find the exact phrase “[His] mercy endureth forever.” FORTY-TWO places. Do you think maybe He was trying to send a message? There are well over a hundred variations of the same thought.

Micah 7:18 says:

Who [is] a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth [in] mercy.

Did you catch that? He delights in mercy. In the original Hebrew, that could be accurately translated as “takes pleasure in.” It pleasures Him to show mercy.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says:

[It is of] the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.

So. Now we know that His mercy endures forever and it’s new every morning. That means that every morning when you wake up, you have more mercy available than the day before. Yesterday’s mercy endures forever and you got a fresh dose this morning. Why? Because providing mercy gives Him pleasure.

I’ll wrap this up with two more scriptures. Isaiah 53:10-11 says:

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

He’s satisfied. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” Keep that in mind as we move into the very next chapter where we read in Isa. 54:7-10:

For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. For this [is as] the waters of Noah unto me: for [as] I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

“but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” As the waters of Noah… so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

You need a theologian to help you misunderstand that.

God’s not mad at you. Larry the Cable Guy says, “That’s funny. I don’t care who ya are.” I’m tellin’ you, God’s not mad at ya. I don’t care who ya are.

And that’s definitely good news.

Here’s one small example of that to which I referred in the previous post. I give you Vin’s latest.

Hey, if Bane can send everyone to go worship at Ann’s feet, I can post a weekly link to a column with substance. Don’t get me wrong. I love Ann but I rarely learn anything from her. She’s just entertaining.

I find it fascinating how people from every political category and every walk of life recoil in horror when I inform them that I’m an anarcho-capitalist and that I don’t believe any government is legitimate or necessary. What is most surprising is how many well-read, intelligent and politically savvy people cannot grasp it. I’m going to lay out my reasoning here and you vultures are welcome to pick it apart. Just don’t be surprised if none of you can present an argument I’ve not heard before.

The first knee jerk objection is usually, “But… but… we need some government! If we had no government at all, it would be chaos and… and.. well, anarchy! Just survival of the fittest.”

My response: “Not true, but so what if it were. How much different would that be than the situation we have now?”

“You can’t have people just gunning people down in the streets and taking whatever they want!”

My response: “Oh, you mean like what currently happens every day in the inner cities and like government agents do everyday with complete impunity? I agree. That should be stopped. So let’s get rid of government.”

OK, I’ll stop the silly dialog and get to the point. Unless you live in a really bad neighborhood (and probably even then) the only coercive relationship you have in your life is with the government. I know that the only non-voluntary relationship in my life is with government. The point I’m trying to make is that I live an anarcho-capitalist life every day. Chances are, you do too. With the exception of the government’s coercion in my life, every other relationship in my life is voluntary and predicated on mutual agreement and mutual benefit. I’ve never called “the cops” in my life. It’s unlikely that I ever will and even if I did, I would prefer that they were privately employed as opposed to government agents.

I find that even when dealing with people with whom I have strong disagreements, we can either put them aside or mutually agree to stay away from each other. Only government has the legal right to put a gun to your head. One way or another, they do it every single day. Why? Because they can. When you “call the cops,” it’s nothing more than calling in the “legal guns.” It’s a cop-out (pardon the pun) because you’re unable or unwilling to resolve a situation yourself. I have no need for them. None. They’re largely ineffective anyway and if the situation escalates to the point that it requires gunfire and bloodshed, I’m willing to do it myself. Those situations are extremely rare unless you are a very unreasonable person or involve badged bozos. I tend to stay away from unreasonable people.

“But… but… what about national defense? That’s a legitimate function of government! And the courts! That’s legitimate, too.”

True. Those are legitimate functions of government that they’ve repeatedly demonstrated that they are either unwilling or unable to handle. I find it absolutely astounding that one of the first responses to 9/11 was to create a whole new government bureaucracy and a new cabinet position that they had the nerve to call “Homeland Security.” I guess I’m just stupid, but I thought that’s what the “Department of Defense” and the “Secretary of Defense” was for. Now we have a whole new level of bloat and we’re no more secure. The borders are still wide open, airport “security” is a much bigger hassle and an even bigger joke than it was before and we’re no safer. The government is either unwilling to defend this country or too inept.

As for courts… I’ve spent more time than I would care to in courts over the last few years in addition to observing the news reports and reading a lot. If you get anything resembling justice in any court in America at any level, you’re the exception, not the rule. Most of the lawyers are corrupt and keep in mind that a judge is typically just a lawyer that was either too power-hungry or too lazy to continue practicing law.

The bottom line is this: My life would be much, much easier with no government at all. The government offers me nothing of value and thrives on putting their gun to my head. I would rather deal with the Mafia. At least most of them have some sense of honor.

Government at every level is nothing more than a jobs program for the incompetent.

I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes in history. George Washington said:

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

…doesn’t have any use for a “nose hair trimmer.”

Real men pluck ‘em.

And then cry, whether they believe a man should cry or not. Pull those short ones and tell me your eyes didn’t water.

So if you tell me that you’re a man that doesn’t believe a real man cries, either you’re lying or I know you’re a sissy with a nice set of “personal grooming” accessories. You know, kinda like a woman.

Just a random thought this morning.

…with one of my favorite editorial writers in America. Vin Suprynowicz is the Assistant editorial-page editor for The Las Vegas Review-Journal and has been for many years now. He’s also a nationally syndicated libertarian columnist and author of Send In The Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 and The Ballad of Carl Drega (both non fiction). His newest work is a novel entitled The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Resistance.

In catching up with his past columns tonight, I came across one published February 6, 2005 that’s titled, Teaching preschoolers to read ‘not encouraged’ Here are a couple of excerpts where he’s quoting a disgruntled government teacher:

But, “Arithmetic was not the only institution that has gone by the wayside. Teaching in general had been all but banned,” Mr. Lewis, former director of studies at Washington’s World Charter School, finally figured out. “A genre of lesson planning and required ‘pedagogies’ had sprung up that allowed a maximum of about 10 minutes of actual teaching per class period. The remaining class time had to be devoted to a combination of ‘touchy-feely’ techniques, politically correct propaganda, and ‘activities.’”

—————————-

“I not so long ago looked into some federal funds for preschool reading programs under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act,” Mr. Lewis continues. “I was initially optimistic, as I had recent success getting 3- and 4-year-olds reading fluently. … On inspection of the grant materials, I found I did not qualify for the simple reason that the government ‘absolutely’ did not encourage the teaching of actual reading to preschoolers. Recognition of the letters of the alphabet was the maximum acceptable instruction.”

I hope this is enough to get you to click the link and read the entire column. In his subtle, inimitable way, Vin proceeds to tie the whole thing into gun control. After you’ve finished that column, click the first link and bookmark it so you can read the rest of what he’s written, and will write. It’s well worth the time.

(Also, additional information about Vin is available from his web site.)

Reading that column I was reminded of my 4 year old coming to me today with a stack of Bob books in her hand and saying, “Daddy? Want me to read one of these to you?” (I was working and she was interrupting, but you’ll never get me to discourage reading. There’s always time for reading together.) She proceeded to pick out the tenth of twelve books. (They’re numbered and get progressively harder.) I encouraged her to pick one of the lower numbered books because I haven’t had time to work with her on them much. After a bit of negotiation, we settled on number 5 and she read the whole thing with only very minimal help. That’s not the beginner set in the Bob series, either. We skipped that one. We started with the second set and we’re going to have to get the next level soon because my 6 year old has mastered the ones we have and the 4 year old is close. (It pains me to think where they would be now if they had a mother that cared and hadn’t kept them from me for the better part of the last 3 years.)

I was informed by my children today, that the four year old of the woman I wrote about in Dumb broads and home education, cannot count to 10. They were astonished. My daughters were both counting to 10 both forwards and backwards by the time they were two years old. My four year old can count to 40 or 50 now and I haven’t had much time to actively work with her yet. The older one can count to 100 now. After a year of preschool and a few months of kindergarten (both against my wishes) she told me she could count to 100. She couldn’t get past 49 because she had been taught by memorization. I spent about 20 mins. with her showing her how the numbers relate with patterns and she can now count to 100 (and beyond) every time. Her younger sister listening in on that lesson is the reason she can count to 50 now and is doing basic arithmetic in her head. At four.

But what do I know? It’s not like I have a degree from Columbia Teachers’ College or anything. Heck, I don’t have any degree in anything. I haven’t spent a single second of my life in a college classroom (while class was going on). I’m just a dumb, uneducated redneck.

I’m sure the government knows best.