Charities
About this time every year I see the same posting on Facebook listing salaries of charity CEOs in an obvious attempt to influence donations to certain charities. The intent is commendable, but the execution leaves a lot of questions in my mind. They always list a bunch of charities with directors or CEOs who receive $0 compensation. That runs red flags up right away.
Really? Did their children die of hunger last month? Are they living under a bridge somewhere because they couldn’t pay the rent?
Somewhere there must be a bookkeeping dodge explaining this. In the case of religious charities, maybe they are compensated as clergy, with a parsonage, expense account, and other funding provided by the tithes and offerings of his parishioners. Maybe that is a good deal for non members who donate, but you can’t compare charities fairly without having all the numbers showing.
Some of the numbers are just fabricated out of whole cloth, or are years out of date. I suggest a check with SNOPES.COM will reveal these
As a former board member on a local United Way group, I am always sad to see the United Way attacked as a “bad” group to donate to. Most of that goes back to a situation where a national director was living in an ostentatious lifestyle that offended many people. Some of the scandal was real, but some was from misunderstanding of the way a large national charity works. I would include the Red Cross in the same category in the following explanation.
The United Way of the USA is a national organization that provides lobbying services; television, radio and magazine advertising; presentation materials such as brochures and videos, affiliation with the NFL for game schedules; and training materials and legal liability coverage for local groups. They are NOT a fundraising organization. They are a corporation with benefits and services to sell to local groups, who are fundraisers.
The local group I was associated with was United Way of the Great Basin, which covered five northeastern counties of Nevada, which, before this group was formed, was a distant part of a United Way group hundreds of miles away based in Reno. When the gold mines were booming, some of the businesses and banks in Elko realized that fundraising for local charities was being made more difficult by the perception that we were raising money for a Reno charity, who only sent some of it back to us. By having a local group we could fundraise with the idea that the money we raise here stays here to help local people. It was a good idea that caused problems later on.
Our local United Way paid a flat rate, about 1.4% I believe, to the United Way of the USA. For that we were allowed to use their logo on our literature, use their TV and other media advertising, and got lots of football schedules and videos with famous football players telling of the great things that local United Way groups were doing with the donations. We had no input into salaries, compensation, expenses or any other functions of the national organization. We just bought their product.
And their reputation, too, for good or bad. In the overall picture, though, we could not have printed the materials, bought TV and radio spots, etc, for the money we paid them.
Local United Way groups are formed to facilitate fundraising and distribute the funds fairly to local organizations. For donors, the main benefit is the ability to donate regularly through payroll deductions at work. No writing checks or digging through your pockets for spare cash every month. For charities, they can cut back or eliminate all the time and trouble of raising money to continue their work. They get a predictable and steady supply of funding from the local United Way. Less pain and trouble for all concerned.
I got involved through a rather circuitous route. I was first asked by my company to be the coordinator/spokesman for our annual company United Way campaign at the power plant where I worked. This consisted of holding meetings to present the campaign and convince people they should donate, and passing out and later collecting the donation envelopes after they were filled out.
I wondered for years why they asked me, the machinist, usually found in the back of the plant running a lathe or mill, and not ever in charge of meetings or gatherings of any kind.
Then one day I remembered--the runway.
After finding that the plant property included a whole section with nothing on it, I pestered several plant managers for permission to grade a runway across it so I could fly to work now and then. After about three managers refused me, finally one said if I lined up all the permits from all the county, state and federal authorities, I could do it on my own time. So I did!
The county said if I wasn’t building a structure, no problem. The state of Nevada was very encouraging, as they liked to see more access to the back country. The Feds were not only happy to approve, they wanted to put it on the sectional charts when I finished it. I told them I couldn’t get them permission to do that yet, since I didn’t own the land. The plant manager seemed surprised when I returned with the results, but he kept his word and told me to go ahead.
One of the contractors on the site had an old grader that had sat unmoved for a couple of years, so I asked them what the problem was, and if I could borrow it if I fixed it. They agreed! It had a broken shaft to the lifting mechanism for the blade, and it needed a battery. I measured up the shaft and made a new one, being a machinist, and I went down to talk to Chuck at the vehicle maintenance shop about getting a battery. Chuck told me they replaced the batteries on the plant trucks on a regular schedule, so he happened to have a couple of batteries that had just been removed but still serviceable. He donated one, and I was in business.
So for two long weekends, I surveyed the strip using an ancient marine GPS, which told me my anchor was dragging if I moved it too fast, and then graded off the brush to make a smooth dirt runway one mile long and 75 feet wide. I enjoyed flying to work many times, and sometimes a tech from Reno flew out for a few hours of work at the plant. By flying, he could make a one day trip instead of needing a motel for a two day trip by car.
One day the plant manager called me to his office and told me I needed to defend my runway, grinning. We had forgotten to notify Idaho Power Company, a partner in the ownership of the property, that we had a runway on the plant site. He said they were panicked about liability issues, and wanted the runway closed. I asked the plant manager to schedule me for a presentation at the next ownership meeting, which he did.
If a computer presentation program like Power Point was available then, I had never used it, so after researching and calling for information from the Aircraft Owner and Pilots Ass’n and other flying organizations on liability issues concerning private runways, I put it all together and printed out brochures with a history of the plant, including the planes that had landed on the entrance road, the non issue of liability if someone landed on the runway uninvited (all the risk was his, and we could sue him for damages), and a follow up section to finish showing the very tangible benefits to the plant for alternate evacuation if the only access road were blocked by a truck or train wreck, and the possibility of mass casualty evacuation in case of a disaster at the plant, since the nearest trauma center was in Reno, over 200 miles away.
I brought a dress shirt and slacks to work on the appointed day, since several vice-presidents of both ownership companies were attending, and when introduced by the plant manager, I got up, went to the front of the room, had the brochures passed out, and remembering all I had been taught in college, gave them my best presentation of the facts and the benefits.
It was about a ten minute presentation, and knowing that some of the vice-presidents were also pilots, I added that rather than close the runway, they might consider improving it with pavement, so they could save time traveling to the plant on the next ownership meeting. Driving across Nevada can be so tiring. I got a brief round of applause when I finished, along with shocked looks from some of the management at the plant who thought I was just the machinist. They tabled the motion to close the runway and I never heard of it again. They never paved the runway, either.
Funny how one topic leads into another! I believe it was shortly after this that I was asked by the plant manager to put on the United Way presentation for the plant. That’s how the machinist got to be in charge.
Since the operations crews were on rotating shifts, just one presentation wouldn’t do it. There was no way to get all the employees in one room at the same time. So I always had to hold meetings with small groups at different times to get all 120 people taken care of. I say always because every year, they asked me to do it again. I don’t think it was just because I was so good at it!
I had been putting on the meetings for a couple of years when the United Way of the Great Basin was formed. The first year they came to the plant to help with the presentation, they asked me if I would be willing to be on the Funds Distribution Committee. I didn’t know what that was, so they explained I would come to a meeting and listen as the various local charities explained their mission and goals, presented their budgets, and asked for funding from the United Way. When they were all finished, we would divvy up the funds we had on hand to distribute for the coming year.
The first year was easy! There weren’t very many charities and service groups asking for funding, and we had had great success in our fundraising, so everybody got what they asked for, and some even more. We told the Red Cross, who had no local office, that we would double their request if they opened a Winnemucca office, and they did it in two weeks!
We still had money left over and somebody mentioned a group of local ministers who put a fund together for travelers who came to the churches on the main highway through town to ask for help when they broke down or ran out of money on their way through town. The churches on Main Street got all the hits, and the churches out in the residential areas didn’t get hit that often, so they had arranged to share the load between them with an informal sharing pool.
We offered them help getting their credentials as a 501 (c) (3) charity and then helped fund them. Worked out great for both of us.
The next year wasn’t nearly as easy, as more charities and service organizations found us, and every year thereafter we had to disappoint some people who had hoped for more. We spent long hours arguing to come to a final conclusion on where the money would go. We were all non paid volunteers.
Which brings me back to the issue at hand: If someone is listed as receiving $0 for working for a charity, can you believe that? I got no salary for my volunteering, but my company gave me time off to travel to Reno for training sessions, they arranged for my time at the plant for meetings to be paid at the regular machinist’s pay rate, and they provided a meeting room and furniture as needed for the United Way campaign rallies. So while I wasn’t paid for my United Way work, I was paid my usual wages so I didn’t lose money, either.
So I would argue that when you are comparing charities, don’t just look at the national organization--find out what is happening locally, in your immediate area. Talk to people and find out who people go to for help when they are in trouble in your particular town. It may be a church that is particularly active. It may be the local Red Cross affiliate--each one is run by a local person. I’ve known good ones and I’ve met bad ones. Check out the Salvation Army--even though it is a religious organization, they work with volunteers from other churches. I’ve seen the local SDA preacher ringing the bell by the red bucket, and my wife volunteered one bitterly cold December evening.
If you have more time than money, ask if you can volunteer. Due to the recession and the recent political hostility toward poor people, there is a severe shortage of concerned, motivated volunteers. When you volunteer to help others, no one is helped more than you. You will receive an education that cannot be bought.
I think this one is getting a little long, so I’ll quit and continue this narrative later.
December 4, 2014
Don Rogers
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
Low-fat and Alzheimer’s
Here is what we know for sure:
A high fat, no carbohydrate diet (ketogenic) has been used to cure thirty percent of intractable pediatric epilepsy patients at Johns Hopkins University Hospital--patients who could not be helped by any other therapy.
The only treatment that has ever even slightly improved cognitive function for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease is a ketogenic diet, (high fat-low carbs).
Autopsies of Alzheimer’s patients brains show a marked deficiency of lipids and cholesterol compared to people without Alzheimer’s.
The myelin sheath that forms the insulation around our neuron cells and axons is composed of fatty substances. When people joke about “coating their nerve endings” with chocolate or bacon, they may be unknowingly literal.
In the last thirty years the world has seen an explosion of Alzheimer’s Disease, Autism and ADHD--all neurological diseases. While some cases are related to genetics, that would not explain the sudden rise in cases. That can only be ascribed to environmental changes during that time period.
It is fairly obvious that good neurological health depends on fats in our diet. Fats are essential in the maintenance and repair of our nervous system.
Concurrent with the epidemic of neurological disorders has been the sudden emphasis on eating a low fat diet to protect the heart, circulatory system and specifically the coronary arteries. There is now a whole shelf of items in the grocery store labelled low-fat, fat free, heart healthy. etc. In almost every case what has replaced the fats are more carbohydrates--starches and sugars of one kind or another.
Which leads to the other epidemic--obesity and type 2 diabetes. Most people associate obesity with eating fatty foods, but that may be too simple. The obesity epidemic has occurred at the same time people are cutting their fat intake. One in three people have or will get diabetes, and that has nothing to do with fats in the diet--it is related to the carb intake.
All of these things are happening in the last thirty years or so. Sure, correlation is not necessarily causation but are there any better ideas? If fats are essential for neurological health, and the country has an epidemic of neurological diseases after cutting fats out of the diet, what is hard to understand about that?
If most of our processed foods have been spiked with extra sugar, high fructose corn syrup and starches to replace the lost fat, and we suddenly have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes follow, what else should we think?
I am not an unbiased observer here. I was a vegetarian for most of my youth as a Seventh-day Adventist, careful to eat lots of vegetables, fruits and nuts. When I would have been eating meat, I had wheat gluten and textured soy protein instead. When I was drafted into the US Army, I gave that up, and gained thirty pounds in the first two months of basic training, due to a huge increase in calories and a great reduction in physical exertion.
My wife and I became vegetarian about three years ago because she was having digestive problems with eating meat, and it’s easier for two to eat vegetarian than just one. I am now having second thoughts.
One of the saddest parts of growing old is losing friends and relatives to the relentless advance of age. The part that upsets me most are those who lose their minds to Alzheimer’s and dementia before they go. I still know a fair number of Seventh-day Adventists, and it seems to me that an inordinate number fall prey to dementia way too early as they age.
I knew the Lloyd family, who were strict, devout, vegetarian Adventists in Colorado when we lived there. They needed an organ player for their services, and they asked me to play, even though I was not a member. I became close friends with Ernie Lloyd. He was a pilot who flew his plane over the mountains every week to carry the preacher over from Montrose to Nucla to give the sermon. He was very active and smart, but he rapidly lost his mind in his sixties and died not knowing anyone.
My good friend and coworker here in Nevada, Ken Lighthouse, has lost his father and his brother to Alzheimer’s. Both were devout Adventist vegetarians. His brother was a medical missionary in Guam for several years before he became unable to do the work and was sent home when he was sixty five.
I know of other Adventists with dementia related problems, and it breaks my heart.
The Adventist church just concluded a health survey of their membership, and I looked for information on dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, but was unable find any data on those lines. The results were focussed on heart health, it seemed to me. I would love to find some data on vegetarian, low-fat Adventist diet and rates of Alzheimer’s Disease.
I have been researching online and reading books on the subject, and I am of the belief that we need much less carbohydrate in our diet, and a lot more fat for complete whole body nutrition. For too long the focus has been on heart health only, while we overlook the devastation our “heart healthy” diet may doing to the rest of our bodies.
When my son Wes was studying nursing in school, I wrote an essay entitled “Cyanide cures Cancer.” No, it wasn’t about laetrile, or any other quack medicine. It was just I saw the problem with surveying drug efficacy against one disease and ignoring all the others. If all you do is check if it prevented heart attacks, you miss the whole picture. The gist of the article is if you take 5 grams of cyanide in the morning, it is guaranteed you will never die of cancer. So--since we are only looking at cancer--cyanide cures cancer!
The question must be asked, “If a low fat diet kept people from dying of heart attacks, what did they die of instead?” If continuing research shows millions died of Alzheimer’s and complications of obesity and diabetes rather than heart attacks because they ate low fat, high carb diets, what is the advantage?
After reading a book, “The Story of the Human Body” by Daniel Leiberman, I decided to put the Paleo diet to the test. I have always had a problem keeping my weight down, and through the years I have tried every diet available to try and lose weight. One year I lived on one foot long Subway sandwich a day all spring. I lost thirty pounds. I gained it back before winter.
I tried other low calorie diets, and the pattern was always the same. I’d lose the weight in the spring, and put it back on by fall. Must be bear genes, I figured. Actually, after a couple of months fighting hunger and feeling weak, I would get depressed thinking about spending the rest of my life hungry and decide I’d rather be fat.
The premise of the Paleo diet is that humans have evolved as hunter/gatherers and are adapted to eating vegetables, fruit, nuts, and meat. Nobody ate grains until about 10 or 12 thousand years ago, when agriculture started, and our bodies cannot handle the excess energy involved in starches and sugar. So if we go back to that original diet our bodies will automatically regulate to our optimum weight and stay there. Best of all, you will not be hungry. Eat all you want, stop when you are satisfied--just don’t eat any wheat, rice, corn, sugar or potatoes.
I can report complete success so far. Since May I have lost thirty pounds and stabilized there. I have never felt better. I have never felt hungry. I snack on peanuts and pecans, and not the dry roasted ones either. I came in second in a bicycle race this summer, and I’m working on riding to the top of Winnemucca Mountain on my Trek mountain bike. I ride at least two miles every day to get the mail out at the highway, and once a week I ride into the post office, which is 14 miles round trip. I feel like I can live well on this diet for the rest of my life.
I am thinking of asking my gastroenterologist if it might be worthwhile to taper off my autoimmune suppression drugs and the anti-inflammatory drugs that control my chronic ulcerative colitis. Some people have found that removing carbs from the diet relieves the symptoms. That would be nice!
I sent my son Wes a long article entitled, “APOE-4: The Clue to Why Low Fat Diet and Statins may Cause Alzheimer’s,” by Dr. Stephanie Seneff. It is over 25 pages long with lots of references to lots of studies theorizing that statins and low fat diets are responsible for the Alzheimer’s explosion. I am hoping he is as impressed as I was. I think there’s something here!
Here is what we know for sure:
A high fat, no carbohydrate diet (ketogenic) has been used to cure thirty percent of intractable pediatric epilepsy patients at Johns Hopkins University Hospital--patients who could not be helped by any other therapy.
The only treatment that has ever even slightly improved cognitive function for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease is a ketogenic diet, (high fat-low carbs).
Autopsies of Alzheimer’s patients brains show a marked deficiency of lipids and cholesterol compared to people without Alzheimer’s.
The myelin sheath that forms the insulation around our neuron cells and axons is composed of fatty substances. When people joke about “coating their nerve endings” with chocolate or bacon, they may be unknowingly literal.
In the last thirty years the world has seen an explosion of Alzheimer’s Disease, Autism and ADHD--all neurological diseases. While some cases are related to genetics, that would not explain the sudden rise in cases. That can only be ascribed to environmental changes during that time period.
It is fairly obvious that good neurological health depends on fats in our diet. Fats are essential in the maintenance and repair of our nervous system.
Concurrent with the epidemic of neurological disorders has been the sudden emphasis on eating a low fat diet to protect the heart, circulatory system and specifically the coronary arteries. There is now a whole shelf of items in the grocery store labelled low-fat, fat free, heart healthy. etc. In almost every case what has replaced the fats are more carbohydrates--starches and sugars of one kind or another.
Which leads to the other epidemic--obesity and type 2 diabetes. Most people associate obesity with eating fatty foods, but that may be too simple. The obesity epidemic has occurred at the same time people are cutting their fat intake. One in three people have or will get diabetes, and that has nothing to do with fats in the diet--it is related to the carb intake.
All of these things are happening in the last thirty years or so. Sure, correlation is not necessarily causation but are there any better ideas? If fats are essential for neurological health, and the country has an epidemic of neurological diseases after cutting fats out of the diet, what is hard to understand about that?
If most of our processed foods have been spiked with extra sugar, high fructose corn syrup and starches to replace the lost fat, and we suddenly have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes follow, what else should we think?
I am not an unbiased observer here. I was a vegetarian for most of my youth as a Seventh-day Adventist, careful to eat lots of vegetables, fruits and nuts. When I would have been eating meat, I had wheat gluten and textured soy protein instead. When I was drafted into the US Army, I gave that up, and gained thirty pounds in the first two months of basic training, due to a huge increase in calories and a great reduction in physical exertion.
My wife and I became vegetarian about three years ago because she was having digestive problems with eating meat, and it’s easier for two to eat vegetarian than just one. I am now having second thoughts.
One of the saddest parts of growing old is losing friends and relatives to the relentless advance of age. The part that upsets me most are those who lose their minds to Alzheimer’s and dementia before they go. I still know a fair number of Seventh-day Adventists, and it seems to me that an inordinate number fall prey to dementia way too early as they age.
I knew the Lloyd family, who were strict, devout, vegetarian Adventists in Colorado when we lived there. They needed an organ player for their services, and they asked me to play, even though I was not a member. I became close friends with Ernie Lloyd. He was a pilot who flew his plane over the mountains every week to carry the preacher over from Montrose to Nucla to give the sermon. He was very active and smart, but he rapidly lost his mind in his sixties and died not knowing anyone.
My good friend and coworker here in Nevada, Ken Lighthouse, has lost his father and his brother to Alzheimer’s. Both were devout Adventist vegetarians. His brother was a medical missionary in Guam for several years before he became unable to do the work and was sent home when he was sixty five.
I know of other Adventists with dementia related problems, and it breaks my heart.
The Adventist church just concluded a health survey of their membership, and I looked for information on dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, but was unable find any data on those lines. The results were focussed on heart health, it seemed to me. I would love to find some data on vegetarian, low-fat Adventist diet and rates of Alzheimer’s Disease.
I have been researching online and reading books on the subject, and I am of the belief that we need much less carbohydrate in our diet, and a lot more fat for complete whole body nutrition. For too long the focus has been on heart health only, while we overlook the devastation our “heart healthy” diet may doing to the rest of our bodies.
When my son Wes was studying nursing in school, I wrote an essay entitled “Cyanide cures Cancer.” No, it wasn’t about laetrile, or any other quack medicine. It was just I saw the problem with surveying drug efficacy against one disease and ignoring all the others. If all you do is check if it prevented heart attacks, you miss the whole picture. The gist of the article is if you take 5 grams of cyanide in the morning, it is guaranteed you will never die of cancer. So--since we are only looking at cancer--cyanide cures cancer!
The question must be asked, “If a low fat diet kept people from dying of heart attacks, what did they die of instead?” If continuing research shows millions died of Alzheimer’s and complications of obesity and diabetes rather than heart attacks because they ate low fat, high carb diets, what is the advantage?
After reading a book, “The Story of the Human Body” by Daniel Leiberman, I decided to put the Paleo diet to the test. I have always had a problem keeping my weight down, and through the years I have tried every diet available to try and lose weight. One year I lived on one foot long Subway sandwich a day all spring. I lost thirty pounds. I gained it back before winter.
I tried other low calorie diets, and the pattern was always the same. I’d lose the weight in the spring, and put it back on by fall. Must be bear genes, I figured. Actually, after a couple of months fighting hunger and feeling weak, I would get depressed thinking about spending the rest of my life hungry and decide I’d rather be fat.
The premise of the Paleo diet is that humans have evolved as hunter/gatherers and are adapted to eating vegetables, fruit, nuts, and meat. Nobody ate grains until about 10 or 12 thousand years ago, when agriculture started, and our bodies cannot handle the excess energy involved in starches and sugar. So if we go back to that original diet our bodies will automatically regulate to our optimum weight and stay there. Best of all, you will not be hungry. Eat all you want, stop when you are satisfied--just don’t eat any wheat, rice, corn, sugar or potatoes.
I can report complete success so far. Since May I have lost thirty pounds and stabilized there. I have never felt better. I have never felt hungry. I snack on peanuts and pecans, and not the dry roasted ones either. I came in second in a bicycle race this summer, and I’m working on riding to the top of Winnemucca Mountain on my Trek mountain bike. I ride at least two miles every day to get the mail out at the highway, and once a week I ride into the post office, which is 14 miles round trip. I feel like I can live well on this diet for the rest of my life.
I am thinking of asking my gastroenterologist if it might be worthwhile to taper off my autoimmune suppression drugs and the anti-inflammatory drugs that control my chronic ulcerative colitis. Some people have found that removing carbs from the diet relieves the symptoms. That would be nice!
I sent my son Wes a long article entitled, “APOE-4: The Clue to Why Low Fat Diet and Statins may Cause Alzheimer’s,” by Dr. Stephanie Seneff. It is over 25 pages long with lots of references to lots of studies theorizing that statins and low fat diets are responsible for the Alzheimer’s explosion. I am hoping he is as impressed as I was. I think there’s something here!
Saturday, September 6, 2014
GESTALT
GESTALT
I have been trying to think of a word I once knew that refers to how the mind, once having learned or seen something new, then sees the same thing repeated more often afterwards, since the mind has been sensitized to whatever it was. Separate unnoticed items suddenly coalesce into something you didn’t see before.
Aha! I quit trying so hard and it just appeared in my mind--Gestalt! I’ll go back to the top and type it in for the title.
The first instance of gestalt that I can remember is after I went to the Chevrolet dealer in town to buy a Geo Metro. I was riding the company van every day with a dozen or so people out to the power plant where I worked, which was about forty miles from my house.
I had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and was taking an immuno-suppressant drug. I got sick so often I ran out of sick leave, so I knew I had to get out of the van and start driving myself to work, and I wanted the highest mileage car I could get.
I was very specific on the car I needed--a used Geo Metro with 5 speed manual transmission, and no extras except a heater. I had read reports that it got 54-55 miles per gallon of gas, and that’s what I needed to match the cost of the van.
After a couple of weeks, the dealership called me up to show me a car they had found for me. They had been unable to find a Geo Metro to my specs, but they had a Ford Festiva with 5 speed manual transmission and a heater. I had never seen (or at least noticed) a Festiva, but I researched it and found it got 54 mpg on the highway, and Consumers Reports listed it as very reliable, so I bought it. That was in 1995, and I still have it, running good, with 308K miles on it.
But that’s not what I sat down to write about. What astounded my wife and I was that after I got the Festiva, everywhere we looked there were more! They became so noticeable that we would just point and say, “There goes a red one!” or “There goes a blue one!” and we both understood perfectly.
In a week we went from “Never heard of it” to “They’re all over the place!” I’m sure there were not more Festivas on the road--our increased knowledge had changed our perception. That’s my understanding of gestalt!
Now I’m having the same experience with the diet I’ve started. A couple of months ago, in the spring, I was dismayed to find I was nearly 240 lbs and my belt and pants were straining to encircle me. 40” waist and 240 lbs seem to define a red line in my mind that I just cannot cross. So I started my annual end of winter diet again.
I usually do a modified Atkins diet after a three day fast to erase my insulin levels and kill the hunger. I have been researching such low carb, increased fat, fiber and protein diets and I find more and more research supports this as a healthy alternative to just counting calories.
The great thing about this diet is ignoring calories. Fat is far more filling and the sense of fullness lasts for hours, not just minutes as carbohydrates do. There is a reason Chinese food leaves you hungry in an hour--it’s all white rice and corn starch--major carbs, which trigger an insulin burst and then the crash.
I lost 9 lbs the first week, and after nearly three months I’ve lost 31 lbs and still slowly losing weight.
I’ve heard this diet described as a “no white” diet. No white sugar, no white potatoes, no white rice, no white pasta, nothing made from white flour, etc.
The only good white thing I can think of is cauliflower--eat all that you want! In fact, if you steam it, mash it with lots of butter and a little garlic salt you will think you’re eating mashed potatoes.
For breakfast I have a Gardenburger™ with a big pat of butter on top. I eat it like a pancake. It’s very filling, but doesn’t leave you with that sick feeling that too many pancakes do. I also drink a tall glass of Kirkland™ Soy Milk with vanilla, which I use to take my morning medicine (I’m still on immunosuppressants).
For snacks I eat peanuts, cashews, pecans, walnuts--big handfuls and calories are not important. Nuts fill you up quick, unlike chips. I can’t eat just one bag of Wavy Lays™.
Did I mention that my wife and I are vegetarian? Meat and milk makes Carolyn’s stomach hurt, so when she decided to go veggie, so did I. I was raised that way, and it’s easier for two to do it if you’re cooking and eating together.
For dinner we have all the vegetables we want: broccoli, Zucchini, asparagus, Brussel’s sprouts, green beans, etc. either steamed or nuked with lots of butter or cheese. We’ve found that Mexican food is wonderfully suited to this diet, and we love Mexican food. Beans, onions, peppers, avocados, and lots of cheese. There are some carbs in the tortillas, but not many if they’re thin enough.
Remember, if you don’t eat carbs, you can have all the fat you want. Contrary to conventional wisdom, fats are not only good for you but are essential for good neurological health.
I’ve been waiting for years for the first large scale study on people who live on low fat diets and early onset of Alzheimer’s. I suspect a link, but I can’t prove it yet.
I do know that one hundred years ago, Johns Hopkins University hospital was curing about a third of infantile and juvenile epileptics whose seizures were uncontrolled by any other method. They completely removed all traces of carbohydrates from their diet and fed them all the fat they wanted--lots of meat, butter, cheese, etc. They remained on this strict regimen until they went through puberty, then were able to resume a regular diet without the seizures returning.
Anyway, back to gestalt. Since I’ve been on this diet, everywhere I look someone is mentioning new research, or a new book is out, or a TV or radio program is mentioning low carb high fat diets.
I heard Bob Edwards on SiriusXM™ radio interview Daniel Lieberman on his new book The Story of the Human Body. His field of study is evolutionary biology, and his book contends that humans were adapted for a hunter/gatherer diet, which has few cereal grains or sugars, and mostly consisted of nuts, fruits and wild meat, with fibrous leafy vegetables and tubers added during hard times.
He attributes the rise of many health problems to an agricultural diet which started about ten thousand years ago when men first started tilling the land and planting crops, especially grains. He dates the onset of many diseases and epidemics including heart disease, diabetes and tooth decay, to the inundation of starches and sugars into our bodies, which were not designed for them.
I went to my dentist’s office last month for a routine teeth cleaning, and the dental hygienist was amazed that I had no plaque or scale on my teeth. What usually takes an hour or so with ultrasonic tools took about ten minutes with a simple scraper tool. Since my less than rigorous dental hygiene was not the cause, it must have been my low carb diet!
I was listening to the radio program “On Point” a few days ago, and they were having a panel discussion on low carb diets with three doctors. The one doctor that still touted low fat dieting was trying to make the point that if you limit any food group, you will lower calories and lose weight. He was right, but he missed the part about carbs creating hunger by triggering insulin rushes. You can lose weight on a low fat diet, but you will be fighting hunger the whole time. Several surveys and studies have shown that people lose weight faster on a low carb diet, and they tend to stick to it better because their hunger is satisfied by the fats.
Last night I watched a special PBS NOVA program on The Ghosts of Machu Picchu, a city built high in the Andes mountains by the Incas. The archeologists and other scientists were very interested in how they managed to grow enough food to sustain a city built on top of a rugged mountain peak.
They analyzed bones found in the ruins with scientific instruments and found a higher than average amount of Carbon 13. This isotope is indicative of a diet largely of corn. Corn is mostly carbohydrate, with easily digested sugars. It’s no accident that High Fructose Corn Syrup is becoming the dominant sweetener in most processed foods and drinks. It’s cheap and plentiful!
The other confirming evidence was the terrible condition of their teeth, with great decay evident in young adults. Once again, carbs have proven to be detrimental to teeth, as well as the pancreas, liver and circulatory system.
At the risk of oversimplification, I visualize starches and sugars as alcohol, burning fast and furiously, and needing a lot of insulin quickly to deal with all the fast energy. Fats and oils, on the other hand, burn slowly, spreading their energy over a much longer time frame, and not needing any insulin at all. Your body needs energy, and if there are no carbohydrates to burn, your body will burn the fats instead, actually lowering the lipids and cholesterol in your circulatory system, and using the stored fat in your body as well.
So here I am on a quasi Paleo veggie diet, losing weight and feeling better than I’ve felt in a long time. Someday when I reach my weight goal, I will have to introduce a little more carbohydrate to get stabilized, but I’ll never go back to all the starch and sugar I used to eat. I like having healthier teeth and reducing my chances of type 2 diabetes. I also like the feeling of being full most of the day, with no cravings bedeviling me.
I also like the fact I need to buy some new pants and belts. I’m against the last hole in my belt, and all the other holes have been used in this last year.
Don Rogers
Sept 5, 2014
Late edition, gestalt still operative:
Shedding pounds with a high fat diet
Can you lose weight with a diet that places no restrictions on your fat intake? Those who swear by the Atkins plan and other low-carbohydrate regimes have long insisted you can--and new research backs them up, reports The New York Times.
In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, a racially diverse group of 148 obese men and women were given diets to follow. Half were put on low-fat regimes, which limited their total fat intake to less than 30 percent of their daily calories, while the other half followed low-carb diets that involved eating mostly protein and fat.
Over the course of a year, those on the low-carb diet lost more than eight pounds more body fat, and showed greater improvements in cholesterol levels and other measures of cardiovascular health. Those on the low-fat diet did lose weight, but most of it was muscle, not fat.
“This is one of the first long-term trials that’s given these diets without calorie restrictions,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist at Tufts University who was not involved in the study. “It shows that in a free living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calories.”
THE WEEK, Sept 19, 2014, page 21 under Health and Science.
(Paragraph breaks added)
I have been trying to think of a word I once knew that refers to how the mind, once having learned or seen something new, then sees the same thing repeated more often afterwards, since the mind has been sensitized to whatever it was. Separate unnoticed items suddenly coalesce into something you didn’t see before.
Aha! I quit trying so hard and it just appeared in my mind--Gestalt! I’ll go back to the top and type it in for the title.
The first instance of gestalt that I can remember is after I went to the Chevrolet dealer in town to buy a Geo Metro. I was riding the company van every day with a dozen or so people out to the power plant where I worked, which was about forty miles from my house.
I had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and was taking an immuno-suppressant drug. I got sick so often I ran out of sick leave, so I knew I had to get out of the van and start driving myself to work, and I wanted the highest mileage car I could get.
I was very specific on the car I needed--a used Geo Metro with 5 speed manual transmission, and no extras except a heater. I had read reports that it got 54-55 miles per gallon of gas, and that’s what I needed to match the cost of the van.
After a couple of weeks, the dealership called me up to show me a car they had found for me. They had been unable to find a Geo Metro to my specs, but they had a Ford Festiva with 5 speed manual transmission and a heater. I had never seen (or at least noticed) a Festiva, but I researched it and found it got 54 mpg on the highway, and Consumers Reports listed it as very reliable, so I bought it. That was in 1995, and I still have it, running good, with 308K miles on it.
But that’s not what I sat down to write about. What astounded my wife and I was that after I got the Festiva, everywhere we looked there were more! They became so noticeable that we would just point and say, “There goes a red one!” or “There goes a blue one!” and we both understood perfectly.
In a week we went from “Never heard of it” to “They’re all over the place!” I’m sure there were not more Festivas on the road--our increased knowledge had changed our perception. That’s my understanding of gestalt!
Now I’m having the same experience with the diet I’ve started. A couple of months ago, in the spring, I was dismayed to find I was nearly 240 lbs and my belt and pants were straining to encircle me. 40” waist and 240 lbs seem to define a red line in my mind that I just cannot cross. So I started my annual end of winter diet again.
I usually do a modified Atkins diet after a three day fast to erase my insulin levels and kill the hunger. I have been researching such low carb, increased fat, fiber and protein diets and I find more and more research supports this as a healthy alternative to just counting calories.
The great thing about this diet is ignoring calories. Fat is far more filling and the sense of fullness lasts for hours, not just minutes as carbohydrates do. There is a reason Chinese food leaves you hungry in an hour--it’s all white rice and corn starch--major carbs, which trigger an insulin burst and then the crash.
I lost 9 lbs the first week, and after nearly three months I’ve lost 31 lbs and still slowly losing weight.
I’ve heard this diet described as a “no white” diet. No white sugar, no white potatoes, no white rice, no white pasta, nothing made from white flour, etc.
The only good white thing I can think of is cauliflower--eat all that you want! In fact, if you steam it, mash it with lots of butter and a little garlic salt you will think you’re eating mashed potatoes.
For breakfast I have a Gardenburger™ with a big pat of butter on top. I eat it like a pancake. It’s very filling, but doesn’t leave you with that sick feeling that too many pancakes do. I also drink a tall glass of Kirkland™ Soy Milk with vanilla, which I use to take my morning medicine (I’m still on immunosuppressants).
For snacks I eat peanuts, cashews, pecans, walnuts--big handfuls and calories are not important. Nuts fill you up quick, unlike chips. I can’t eat just one bag of Wavy Lays™.
Did I mention that my wife and I are vegetarian? Meat and milk makes Carolyn’s stomach hurt, so when she decided to go veggie, so did I. I was raised that way, and it’s easier for two to do it if you’re cooking and eating together.
For dinner we have all the vegetables we want: broccoli, Zucchini, asparagus, Brussel’s sprouts, green beans, etc. either steamed or nuked with lots of butter or cheese. We’ve found that Mexican food is wonderfully suited to this diet, and we love Mexican food. Beans, onions, peppers, avocados, and lots of cheese. There are some carbs in the tortillas, but not many if they’re thin enough.
Remember, if you don’t eat carbs, you can have all the fat you want. Contrary to conventional wisdom, fats are not only good for you but are essential for good neurological health.
I’ve been waiting for years for the first large scale study on people who live on low fat diets and early onset of Alzheimer’s. I suspect a link, but I can’t prove it yet.
I do know that one hundred years ago, Johns Hopkins University hospital was curing about a third of infantile and juvenile epileptics whose seizures were uncontrolled by any other method. They completely removed all traces of carbohydrates from their diet and fed them all the fat they wanted--lots of meat, butter, cheese, etc. They remained on this strict regimen until they went through puberty, then were able to resume a regular diet without the seizures returning.
Anyway, back to gestalt. Since I’ve been on this diet, everywhere I look someone is mentioning new research, or a new book is out, or a TV or radio program is mentioning low carb high fat diets.
I heard Bob Edwards on SiriusXM™ radio interview Daniel Lieberman on his new book The Story of the Human Body. His field of study is evolutionary biology, and his book contends that humans were adapted for a hunter/gatherer diet, which has few cereal grains or sugars, and mostly consisted of nuts, fruits and wild meat, with fibrous leafy vegetables and tubers added during hard times.
He attributes the rise of many health problems to an agricultural diet which started about ten thousand years ago when men first started tilling the land and planting crops, especially grains. He dates the onset of many diseases and epidemics including heart disease, diabetes and tooth decay, to the inundation of starches and sugars into our bodies, which were not designed for them.
I went to my dentist’s office last month for a routine teeth cleaning, and the dental hygienist was amazed that I had no plaque or scale on my teeth. What usually takes an hour or so with ultrasonic tools took about ten minutes with a simple scraper tool. Since my less than rigorous dental hygiene was not the cause, it must have been my low carb diet!
I was listening to the radio program “On Point” a few days ago, and they were having a panel discussion on low carb diets with three doctors. The one doctor that still touted low fat dieting was trying to make the point that if you limit any food group, you will lower calories and lose weight. He was right, but he missed the part about carbs creating hunger by triggering insulin rushes. You can lose weight on a low fat diet, but you will be fighting hunger the whole time. Several surveys and studies have shown that people lose weight faster on a low carb diet, and they tend to stick to it better because their hunger is satisfied by the fats.
Last night I watched a special PBS NOVA program on The Ghosts of Machu Picchu, a city built high in the Andes mountains by the Incas. The archeologists and other scientists were very interested in how they managed to grow enough food to sustain a city built on top of a rugged mountain peak.
They analyzed bones found in the ruins with scientific instruments and found a higher than average amount of Carbon 13. This isotope is indicative of a diet largely of corn. Corn is mostly carbohydrate, with easily digested sugars. It’s no accident that High Fructose Corn Syrup is becoming the dominant sweetener in most processed foods and drinks. It’s cheap and plentiful!
The other confirming evidence was the terrible condition of their teeth, with great decay evident in young adults. Once again, carbs have proven to be detrimental to teeth, as well as the pancreas, liver and circulatory system.
At the risk of oversimplification, I visualize starches and sugars as alcohol, burning fast and furiously, and needing a lot of insulin quickly to deal with all the fast energy. Fats and oils, on the other hand, burn slowly, spreading their energy over a much longer time frame, and not needing any insulin at all. Your body needs energy, and if there are no carbohydrates to burn, your body will burn the fats instead, actually lowering the lipids and cholesterol in your circulatory system, and using the stored fat in your body as well.
So here I am on a quasi Paleo veggie diet, losing weight and feeling better than I’ve felt in a long time. Someday when I reach my weight goal, I will have to introduce a little more carbohydrate to get stabilized, but I’ll never go back to all the starch and sugar I used to eat. I like having healthier teeth and reducing my chances of type 2 diabetes. I also like the feeling of being full most of the day, with no cravings bedeviling me.
I also like the fact I need to buy some new pants and belts. I’m against the last hole in my belt, and all the other holes have been used in this last year.
Don Rogers
Sept 5, 2014
Late edition, gestalt still operative:
Shedding pounds with a high fat diet
Can you lose weight with a diet that places no restrictions on your fat intake? Those who swear by the Atkins plan and other low-carbohydrate regimes have long insisted you can--and new research backs them up, reports The New York Times.
In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, a racially diverse group of 148 obese men and women were given diets to follow. Half were put on low-fat regimes, which limited their total fat intake to less than 30 percent of their daily calories, while the other half followed low-carb diets that involved eating mostly protein and fat.
Over the course of a year, those on the low-carb diet lost more than eight pounds more body fat, and showed greater improvements in cholesterol levels and other measures of cardiovascular health. Those on the low-fat diet did lose weight, but most of it was muscle, not fat.
“This is one of the first long-term trials that’s given these diets without calorie restrictions,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist at Tufts University who was not involved in the study. “It shows that in a free living setting, cutting your carbs helps you lose weight without focusing on calories.”
THE WEEK, Sept 19, 2014, page 21 under Health and Science.
(Paragraph breaks added)
Monday, July 21, 2014
A Conversation at the Gate
A Conversation at the Gate
“ I don’t understand, Lord! Why am I over here with the goats and not in that flock of sheep headed for heaven?”
The Lord replied, “Truly I have tried to make humans understand what I really want, but they have refused to hear my message and they make up their own doctrines. That is not what I want.”
“But Lord, haven’t I studied the Bible daily, found the TRUTH in the Adventist church, always kept the Commandments faithfully, went to church on the correct Sabbath day, the seventh day, and believed in the spirit of prophecy?“
The Lord replied, “I have never forgotten anything, and I don’t remember saying any of those things. I gave you new commandments--love God, love your fellow man. I made examples of the priests and Levites, who kept those old commandments to the letter, but had no love for anyone but themselves.
“But Lord, weren’t they God’s chosen people?”
“That was an early misunderstanding from the very beginning. As any parent would, I told them they were special and loved. They mistook that to mean they were better than all the rest of my children. So many make that mistake!”
“So there’s nothing special about being Adventist?”
“The Lord said, “The only thing special is how much harder it is for Adventists to quit worrying about keeping that old law to the letter, and quit acting like they are something special. That was the sin of the Levites, and I abhor self-righteousness.”
I said,”Well then, I guess I don’t have to keep the Sabbath any more.”
God said,”Have to? Have to? Have to? I made the Sabbath for man, not the other way around! That law was given to slave owners who worked their slaves all day every day. I was trying to show them that loving people should allow their workers at least one day a week off for rest and relaxation. But the religious leaders made it a test, a burden--something for people to watch and judge others by. That rule was to give your employees a break, not so some people could feel more righteous than others.”
“In every way I tried to point out that the Sabbath is a joyous day off from the regular grind. I pointed out that it is OK to prepare food if you are hungry, it is OK to go out and rescue livestock that are stuck in the ditch, that it is OK to pick up your bedroll if you need to move it, in spite of what the Levites think.”
I asked, “Were the Levites really so bad? You seem to have it in for them.”
He said, “Yes, but only because I love them so much, and like wayward children, they are so stubborn and hard headed they will not listen to me. I told a parable of the Good Samaritan, and they missed the meaning entirely! They just thought we should like good guys like the Samaritan.”
“I was contrasting the priest, a great leader of the church, who was in a hurry and didn’t have time to stop and help the wounded man beside the road; the Levite, who was of the tribe of the temple men, who were proud that the Ten Commandments were entrusted to them and who strove to show how righteous they were, and how correctly they kept every detail of the law; and a heathen Samaritan who did not know or keep any Jewish law and were hated by the Jews just like the Palestinians are now. The Samaritan was the one who stopped to help the wounded man, bandage his injuries, and take him to a place of refuge.”
“So you like the heathen Samaritan better than the religious Jews?”
God said, “I made them all and I love them all, but only the Samaritan had my spirit of love inside him. I wish all humans could just accept my love in their hearts, and quit fussing about the details of religious doctrines.”
I wondered, “Surely there is one religion that is the TRUE religion. Which is it?”
The Lord replied, “All of them and none of them. LOVE is the true religion, and if you have my love in you, you have the true religion. I have faithful loving children who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, heathen and even Adventist. Look around and see the love pouring out of my followers all over the world.”
“My apostle Paul wrote a whole chapter on the fruits of the spirit--the things we should see if a person has my spirit of love in him. Not once in the whole chapter did he write ‘doctrinally correct’, or ‘law keeping’. In fact, in another of his letters, the one to the Galations, he makes it plain that righteousness does not come from law keeping. Having your name on the membership rolls of the Adventist church is not a ticket to the kingdom. In fact, as I mentioned before, it might be an impediment.”
“It sounds hard to do.” I commented.
The Lord replied, “Only if you refuse to turn loose of the things of this world, to quit grasping at false objects of desire. There is no lasting happiness in money or the things that money can buy. How many rich people kill themselves every day learning this lesson too late? The only lasting joy is in loving other people and working together with fellow humans.”
“But some of them are lazy, no good bums!” I countered. “They’re hard to love.”
“Yes, sometimes it seems that way, doesn’t it?” God said. “But the rule is to let me judge--not you. Men look on the outside, but I can see the heart and I know the end from the beginning. If you have love you will feel the need to do the right thing.”
“Compassion will compel you to help feed hungry children any way you can, even if their mother is trapped in drug addiction. Love will cause you to visit those in jail, even though they may have committed some horrible crime. When you see a beggar on the street, your non-judgmental love will push you to buy an extra burger and drink and take it to him. If you have love, this will not be much of a trial to overcome.”
“But Lord, what if they are taking advantage of my goodness?”
He reminded me that he had covered that topic in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.”
“I want to believe, but I need more faith. Can you help me?” I asked.
God said, “You must only believe that my grace and mercy are sufficient to cover your doubt. I once found a pagan Roman Centurion who had more faith than all of Israel.”
“Is it too late?” I asked, still standing on the wrong side of the gate.
“I am not willing that any should perish.” said the Lord. “With me, all things are possible! Since you have asked, be filled with my love, and enter into the kingdom.”
“ I don’t understand, Lord! Why am I over here with the goats and not in that flock of sheep headed for heaven?”
The Lord replied, “Truly I have tried to make humans understand what I really want, but they have refused to hear my message and they make up their own doctrines. That is not what I want.”
“But Lord, haven’t I studied the Bible daily, found the TRUTH in the Adventist church, always kept the Commandments faithfully, went to church on the correct Sabbath day, the seventh day, and believed in the spirit of prophecy?“
The Lord replied, “I have never forgotten anything, and I don’t remember saying any of those things. I gave you new commandments--love God, love your fellow man. I made examples of the priests and Levites, who kept those old commandments to the letter, but had no love for anyone but themselves.
“But Lord, weren’t they God’s chosen people?”
“That was an early misunderstanding from the very beginning. As any parent would, I told them they were special and loved. They mistook that to mean they were better than all the rest of my children. So many make that mistake!”
“So there’s nothing special about being Adventist?”
“The Lord said, “The only thing special is how much harder it is for Adventists to quit worrying about keeping that old law to the letter, and quit acting like they are something special. That was the sin of the Levites, and I abhor self-righteousness.”
I said,”Well then, I guess I don’t have to keep the Sabbath any more.”
God said,”Have to? Have to? Have to? I made the Sabbath for man, not the other way around! That law was given to slave owners who worked their slaves all day every day. I was trying to show them that loving people should allow their workers at least one day a week off for rest and relaxation. But the religious leaders made it a test, a burden--something for people to watch and judge others by. That rule was to give your employees a break, not so some people could feel more righteous than others.”
“In every way I tried to point out that the Sabbath is a joyous day off from the regular grind. I pointed out that it is OK to prepare food if you are hungry, it is OK to go out and rescue livestock that are stuck in the ditch, that it is OK to pick up your bedroll if you need to move it, in spite of what the Levites think.”
I asked, “Were the Levites really so bad? You seem to have it in for them.”
He said, “Yes, but only because I love them so much, and like wayward children, they are so stubborn and hard headed they will not listen to me. I told a parable of the Good Samaritan, and they missed the meaning entirely! They just thought we should like good guys like the Samaritan.”
“I was contrasting the priest, a great leader of the church, who was in a hurry and didn’t have time to stop and help the wounded man beside the road; the Levite, who was of the tribe of the temple men, who were proud that the Ten Commandments were entrusted to them and who strove to show how righteous they were, and how correctly they kept every detail of the law; and a heathen Samaritan who did not know or keep any Jewish law and were hated by the Jews just like the Palestinians are now. The Samaritan was the one who stopped to help the wounded man, bandage his injuries, and take him to a place of refuge.”
“So you like the heathen Samaritan better than the religious Jews?”
God said, “I made them all and I love them all, but only the Samaritan had my spirit of love inside him. I wish all humans could just accept my love in their hearts, and quit fussing about the details of religious doctrines.”
I wondered, “Surely there is one religion that is the TRUE religion. Which is it?”
The Lord replied, “All of them and none of them. LOVE is the true religion, and if you have my love in you, you have the true religion. I have faithful loving children who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, heathen and even Adventist. Look around and see the love pouring out of my followers all over the world.”
“My apostle Paul wrote a whole chapter on the fruits of the spirit--the things we should see if a person has my spirit of love in him. Not once in the whole chapter did he write ‘doctrinally correct’, or ‘law keeping’. In fact, in another of his letters, the one to the Galations, he makes it plain that righteousness does not come from law keeping. Having your name on the membership rolls of the Adventist church is not a ticket to the kingdom. In fact, as I mentioned before, it might be an impediment.”
“It sounds hard to do.” I commented.
The Lord replied, “Only if you refuse to turn loose of the things of this world, to quit grasping at false objects of desire. There is no lasting happiness in money or the things that money can buy. How many rich people kill themselves every day learning this lesson too late? The only lasting joy is in loving other people and working together with fellow humans.”
“But some of them are lazy, no good bums!” I countered. “They’re hard to love.”
“Yes, sometimes it seems that way, doesn’t it?” God said. “But the rule is to let me judge--not you. Men look on the outside, but I can see the heart and I know the end from the beginning. If you have love you will feel the need to do the right thing.”
“Compassion will compel you to help feed hungry children any way you can, even if their mother is trapped in drug addiction. Love will cause you to visit those in jail, even though they may have committed some horrible crime. When you see a beggar on the street, your non-judgmental love will push you to buy an extra burger and drink and take it to him. If you have love, this will not be much of a trial to overcome.”
“But Lord, what if they are taking advantage of my goodness?”
He reminded me that he had covered that topic in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.”
“I want to believe, but I need more faith. Can you help me?” I asked.
God said, “You must only believe that my grace and mercy are sufficient to cover your doubt. I once found a pagan Roman Centurion who had more faith than all of Israel.”
“Is it too late?” I asked, still standing on the wrong side of the gate.
“I am not willing that any should perish.” said the Lord. “With me, all things are possible! Since you have asked, be filled with my love, and enter into the kingdom.”
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Observations
Observations:
Did you ever notice that most of the Liberal Colleges and Universities are located in the wealthy and prosperous East and West Coasts, and the Conservative Christian Colleges and Universities are located in the poorer South and Central states? Wonder if there’s a connection?
Did you ever notice that when the country was governed by tax and spend Liberals from 1940 through 1980, the country has never been so prosperous, even as the top tax rate was over 90%? And when the supply side conservatives came to power in 1980 and started to cut taxes, the country has been struggling ever since? Maybe Friedman and Laffer were wrong, and so was Herbert Hoover? Judging by the broad macroeconomic results, I think Galbraith and Keynes were onto something.
Have you ever noticed that in fundamentalist Christian colleges they read books telling how old the earth is, they listen to professors and preachers expound on the age of the earth, but they never, ever, pick up the scientific tools and go out and actually measure the age of the earth? They only do that at the Liberal colleges.
I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church, whose prophet (Ellen G. White), taught that someday Catholics and Protestants would unite and tear down the religious freedom in the USA. She predicted that Sunday would become the national day of worship, and religions who kept other days holy would suffer persecution.
It was not an especially prescient prediction, looking at history. The USA was exceptional in being the first country to guarantee freedom of religion, and the founders all knew that only eternal vigilance would prevent religion from becoming part of the government again. Every religion, it seems, has an overwhelming desire to impose their dogma on everybody.
I came to doubt that it would happen in my lifetime--the gulf of suspicion and hatred between Protestant and Catholic was so huge. Now I’m having doubts about my doubts. I remember when JFK ran for president this same church was aghast at the thought that the end was near. Some were counting the years from 1844 to 1964 and deciding that span of time related to the text “as it was in the days of Noah.” Yes, he preached 120 years and then the end came! Some were disappointed yet again.
Now the majority of the Supreme Court is Catholic, they are eagerly tearing down the wall of separation between church and state, and Adventists, or at least those members I am still acquainted with, seem to love it. I find their blindness to the potential religious takeover ironic and somewhat amusing.
The first move was to declare a corporation is a person, able to hold religious beliefs and rights. Corporations are a legal construct meant to separate human owners of a business from legal liability for the actions of the business. Not answered by the Supreme Court is if an owner of a company can declare the religious beliefs of the corporation, can plaintiffs sue the owners now because they are no longer a separate entity from the corporation?
Could there be a connection in the future between the text in Revelation about being unable to “buy and sell” and the elevation of corporations to personhood? That was always difficult to understand before, but with corporations being persons, not so much.
Most Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions subordinate women, including my former church. I have been watching for a couple of decades as they wrestle with whether to allow women to be ordained into the ministry. Adventists don’t share the utter contempt for women that the Catholic church displays when they stand by and allow a woman to suffer an agonizing death from an ectopic pregnancy rather than abort the fetus.
But many Protestant religions seem to transfer blame to the woman if she gets pregnant, even if by rape or incest. If she accidentally gets pregnant outside of marriage, there will be no end of judgement and condemnation, and she will be punished by being forced to bear the child. Abortion has become the wedge to insert religion into this once secular, religiously free country.
Actually, not just abortion, but all birth control, as the Justices “clarified” the day after the momentous Hobby Lobby decision. They confirmed the right of any “closely held” corporation with a “deeply felt, sincere belief” to refuse coverage for any form of birth control--the exact Catholic dogma of the five Justices who ruled for the the majority.
The priests of Jesus’ day had no love or compassion for the woman caught in adultery as they brought her to Jesus for condemnation and stoning. Modern day religious leaders still have no love or compassion for the woman who wants to enjoy sex without pregnancy. The only feeling they have for the woman is disgust, as they call her a slut, a whore, a sinner. Nothing has changed except, because of scientific knowledge, they can now transfer the love and mercy they should be showing the woman onto a single cell they arbitrarily define as a human being, even though they can’t see it without a microscope. All the love goes to an ovum, and all the hate goes to the woman. Not much has changed in two thousand years.
Today I read that the Pope has urged his people to stop working on Sunday. In an article by Mark Oppenheimer of The New York Times,
Pope Francis said, ”More and more people work on Sundays as a consequence of the competitiveness imposed by a consumer society.” In such cases, he concludes, “work ends up dehumanizing people.”
In Catholicism, Pope Francis suggests, the Sabbath actually is supposed to matter — the whole day, not just Mass. For as the catechism teaches, in Paragraph 2185, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.”
Who better to carry out the wishes of the Pope than five Catholic Supreme Court Justices and corporations with religious rights to impose on their employees?
Revelation says “even the very elect” will be deceived. I am wondering when the light will dawn as they realize they have helped to bring on the very thing they have been warning against all these years.
********
I need to make a correction on the reference to ectopic pregnancy. The case to which I was referring was actually a case of pulmonary hypertension. The link is here for further study: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excommunication_of_Margaret_McBride
Did you ever notice that most of the Liberal Colleges and Universities are located in the wealthy and prosperous East and West Coasts, and the Conservative Christian Colleges and Universities are located in the poorer South and Central states? Wonder if there’s a connection?
Did you ever notice that when the country was governed by tax and spend Liberals from 1940 through 1980, the country has never been so prosperous, even as the top tax rate was over 90%? And when the supply side conservatives came to power in 1980 and started to cut taxes, the country has been struggling ever since? Maybe Friedman and Laffer were wrong, and so was Herbert Hoover? Judging by the broad macroeconomic results, I think Galbraith and Keynes were onto something.
Have you ever noticed that in fundamentalist Christian colleges they read books telling how old the earth is, they listen to professors and preachers expound on the age of the earth, but they never, ever, pick up the scientific tools and go out and actually measure the age of the earth? They only do that at the Liberal colleges.
I was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church, whose prophet (Ellen G. White), taught that someday Catholics and Protestants would unite and tear down the religious freedom in the USA. She predicted that Sunday would become the national day of worship, and religions who kept other days holy would suffer persecution.
It was not an especially prescient prediction, looking at history. The USA was exceptional in being the first country to guarantee freedom of religion, and the founders all knew that only eternal vigilance would prevent religion from becoming part of the government again. Every religion, it seems, has an overwhelming desire to impose their dogma on everybody.
I came to doubt that it would happen in my lifetime--the gulf of suspicion and hatred between Protestant and Catholic was so huge. Now I’m having doubts about my doubts. I remember when JFK ran for president this same church was aghast at the thought that the end was near. Some were counting the years from 1844 to 1964 and deciding that span of time related to the text “as it was in the days of Noah.” Yes, he preached 120 years and then the end came! Some were disappointed yet again.
Now the majority of the Supreme Court is Catholic, they are eagerly tearing down the wall of separation between church and state, and Adventists, or at least those members I am still acquainted with, seem to love it. I find their blindness to the potential religious takeover ironic and somewhat amusing.
The first move was to declare a corporation is a person, able to hold religious beliefs and rights. Corporations are a legal construct meant to separate human owners of a business from legal liability for the actions of the business. Not answered by the Supreme Court is if an owner of a company can declare the religious beliefs of the corporation, can plaintiffs sue the owners now because they are no longer a separate entity from the corporation?
Could there be a connection in the future between the text in Revelation about being unable to “buy and sell” and the elevation of corporations to personhood? That was always difficult to understand before, but with corporations being persons, not so much.
Most Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions subordinate women, including my former church. I have been watching for a couple of decades as they wrestle with whether to allow women to be ordained into the ministry. Adventists don’t share the utter contempt for women that the Catholic church displays when they stand by and allow a woman to suffer an agonizing death from an ectopic pregnancy rather than abort the fetus.
But many Protestant religions seem to transfer blame to the woman if she gets pregnant, even if by rape or incest. If she accidentally gets pregnant outside of marriage, there will be no end of judgement and condemnation, and she will be punished by being forced to bear the child. Abortion has become the wedge to insert religion into this once secular, religiously free country.
Actually, not just abortion, but all birth control, as the Justices “clarified” the day after the momentous Hobby Lobby decision. They confirmed the right of any “closely held” corporation with a “deeply felt, sincere belief” to refuse coverage for any form of birth control--the exact Catholic dogma of the five Justices who ruled for the the majority.
The priests of Jesus’ day had no love or compassion for the woman caught in adultery as they brought her to Jesus for condemnation and stoning. Modern day religious leaders still have no love or compassion for the woman who wants to enjoy sex without pregnancy. The only feeling they have for the woman is disgust, as they call her a slut, a whore, a sinner. Nothing has changed except, because of scientific knowledge, they can now transfer the love and mercy they should be showing the woman onto a single cell they arbitrarily define as a human being, even though they can’t see it without a microscope. All the love goes to an ovum, and all the hate goes to the woman. Not much has changed in two thousand years.
Today I read that the Pope has urged his people to stop working on Sunday. In an article by Mark Oppenheimer of The New York Times,
Pope Francis said, ”More and more people work on Sundays as a consequence of the competitiveness imposed by a consumer society.” In such cases, he concludes, “work ends up dehumanizing people.”
In Catholicism, Pope Francis suggests, the Sabbath actually is supposed to matter — the whole day, not just Mass. For as the catechism teaches, in Paragraph 2185, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.”
Who better to carry out the wishes of the Pope than five Catholic Supreme Court Justices and corporations with religious rights to impose on their employees?
Revelation says “even the very elect” will be deceived. I am wondering when the light will dawn as they realize they have helped to bring on the very thing they have been warning against all these years.
********
I need to make a correction on the reference to ectopic pregnancy. The case to which I was referring was actually a case of pulmonary hypertension. The link is here for further study: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excommunication_of_Margaret_McBride
Friday, June 13, 2014
In case somebody thought I was just another Liberal.
I was once the Chairman of the Democratic Party in Humboldt County here in Nevada. Now, years afterward, my email box is inundated daily with pleas from party leaders all over the country from almost every state in the union begging for more money. I’m sure the other party does the same thing.
I’m hoping that both parties look at the defenestration of Eric Cantor and learn the right lesson. Because of Citizens United--because of Soros and the Koch brothers--because of the obscene amounts of money being poured into elections, it has become apparent to almost everyone that both parties are run by big business, big banks and Wall Street crooks.
Eric Cantor spent upwards of $5,000,000 on his campaign, and his obscure opponent spent about $200,000 and beat him overwhelmingly. I am hoping this happens hundreds of times more in the near future. How many lying, screaming, obnoxious TV and radio ads must a voter be subjected to until he changes his mind. Will he vote for the ad or against it?
What has happened, in my view, is that the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party has moved so far to the right and the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party has moved so far to the left of the political spectrum that they are nearing a meeting on the far side of the circle. That side of the circle is derisively called “populism” by both party’s leaders. The word derives from “people” and it should scare hell out of both party’s elites. All their money will not help them when the people wake up. It may be happening now!
The people are tired of being robbed of their homes, losing their retirement savings, and being buried in debt from predatory lenders and high college tuition. People are sick to death watching the government under both parties cater solicitously to the wealthy with massive bailouts and tax write offs, while at the same time demanding cuts to pay and benefits from ordinary working people.
Without naming names, I would suggest to both parties that they stop sidling up to rich donors and old party hacks, get out of Washington and go find out what people want. They wanted change last time and they didn’t get it. The people are not going to settle for just hope again!
I’m hoping that both parties look at the defenestration of Eric Cantor and learn the right lesson. Because of Citizens United--because of Soros and the Koch brothers--because of the obscene amounts of money being poured into elections, it has become apparent to almost everyone that both parties are run by big business, big banks and Wall Street crooks.
Eric Cantor spent upwards of $5,000,000 on his campaign, and his obscure opponent spent about $200,000 and beat him overwhelmingly. I am hoping this happens hundreds of times more in the near future. How many lying, screaming, obnoxious TV and radio ads must a voter be subjected to until he changes his mind. Will he vote for the ad or against it?
What has happened, in my view, is that the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party has moved so far to the right and the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party has moved so far to the left of the political spectrum that they are nearing a meeting on the far side of the circle. That side of the circle is derisively called “populism” by both party’s leaders. The word derives from “people” and it should scare hell out of both party’s elites. All their money will not help them when the people wake up. It may be happening now!
The people are tired of being robbed of their homes, losing their retirement savings, and being buried in debt from predatory lenders and high college tuition. People are sick to death watching the government under both parties cater solicitously to the wealthy with massive bailouts and tax write offs, while at the same time demanding cuts to pay and benefits from ordinary working people.
Without naming names, I would suggest to both parties that they stop sidling up to rich donors and old party hacks, get out of Washington and go find out what people want. They wanted change last time and they didn’t get it. The people are not going to settle for just hope again!
Saturday, May 31, 2014
The Awesomeness of GPS
The Awesomeness of GPS
Last weekend for Memorial Day Carolyn and I went to Baker City, Oregon, to visit my father’s grave and put some decorations on it. He died ten years ago and I had only been back to visit it once. I notified my son in Albany, Oregon, and my half brother near Yakima, Washington, who both live in easy driving distance, that I would be up there and staying overnight.
My son couldn’t make it, but my brother Gene came down and we went out and found the grave. Gene had never met his father when he was living, since his mother left our father before he was born and then put him up for adoption at three years old. So this was his first meeting with our Dad.
Since my son couldn’t be there, he asked if I could get him the location of the grave by coordinates so he could visit later using his GPS. We both go geocaching occasionally, and with the latitude and longitude we can go to within a few feet of anywhere on earth.
So after we had decorated the grave and taken some photos, I went to the car and got the GPS unit, put it down on the grave stone, tapped in the menu for coordinates, and wrote down the result. Later I posted the photos and coordinates on Facebook.
After I got home the next day, just for fun, I shut down the browser on my desktop computer and opened Google Earth, a great program for seeing satellite pictures of anywhere on earth, even under the sea. First I searched for Baker City, Oregon, and the globe on my screen rotated and zoomed in until the whole city was showing on my screen. Then I deleted the name of the city and entered the coordinates of my Dad’s grave. As soon as I clicked on it, in less than a second, a little pushpin appeared, poked right through my Dad’s gravestone. Such a simple thing, and yet so awe inspiring to the mind of this nerd!
I’m seventy years old now, and I remember when the news of America’s first computer, Univac, was announced when I was a little boy. It could calculate the ballistic trajectory of an artillery shell in just minutes, rather than a bunch of people punching adding machines for days.
When I was twenty three, in the US Army on Okinawa. I got to program a test COBOL program on the world’s largest computer at the time, an IBM System 2- something-something or other. It processed data for all men and material in the western Pacific from Thailand, Viet Nam, the Philippines and Japan. It had five air conditioned rooms of iron core memory, four or five tape drives taller than I was, and a metal band printer that printed paper so fast it arced out of the back of the machine into a box in back. It was in the data processing center of the 2nd Logistical Command at Machinato, Okinawa.
Since I had high math scores on my battery of qualification tests when I entered the Army, I was drafted into a month of Computer Fundamentals and COBOL Language programming. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I enjoyed testing engines on a dynamometer, so when the training was done, I talked my way back to the shop. Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road not Taken” has special meaning to me. Knowing computer basics in 1966 could have led to another whole life, but I’ll never know.
I do know I’ve enjoyed the life I lived, so far! And I enjoy wondering how many of those old mainframe computers it would take to equal an iPhone.
Now that I have established my ancient nerdiness, let’s get back to the wonders of GPS. Most people don’t have a clue about the vast amount of scientific knowledge in physics, geometry, chemistry and calculus involved in that tiny little Global Positioning System. It’s not just that hand held unit, although that would be awesome enough.
To explain GPS easier, one needs to understand the history of radio navigation. First came the Non Directional Beacon, or NDB. It is just a radio sending out a roaring noise on a specific frequency, which a pilot can tune in to with a special radio receiver with a loop antenna. You can rotate the loop while listening to the signal and when the noise is loudest, you know the angle of your plane in relation to the direction to the beacon. Turn the plane until the beacon is out in front, and you’re going in the right direction. At least that’s what Amelia Earhart thought. Better than nothing, but not good enough to find a little island in the big Pacific Ocean.
Next came the Variable Omnidirectional Radiobeacon, known as VOR. These beacons sent out discrete signals that told a receiver on the airplane the exact bearing to the VOR. You could just track to the beacon, or if going to a place without a beacon, you could tune in two or three VORs and draw lines on a chart to each, and where the lines cross is your position. It is precise enough to get you to an airport, but not necessarily in the middle of the runway.
Later some of the VORs got an enhancement called DME, or Distance Measuring Equipment. Now each signal gave you the bearing to the beacon and it told you how far it was to the beacon, so with one calculation you could find a point on the map. But it was still your calculation--the data only told you where the VOR was--you had to figure out where you were.
GPS was developed for the military in the 70’s and 80’s, and in 2000 the system was made available with full precision for civilian use. Instead of ground based beacons, the government launched 24 satellites into precise orbits around the earth. Think of the calculations involved in fuel burn, thrust, stability and vectoring to place each satellite in the exact orbit necessary. Yep, that’s rocket science!
Since the satellites are not stationary, they must be constantly calculating their exact location above the earth to the centimeter, and then streaming that data down to earth where the ground base unit can receive it. The data includes the exact time and the exact location (including elevation) many times a second. The unit in your hand or car or airplane receives signals from six or eight satellites and instantly calculates the precise distance to each satellite and then calculates it’s position in relationship to all of them. Then it can display latitude and longitude, or in the more modern ones like the one in my car the position is marked on a moving map.
The very latest ones for airplanes find your position, elevation and heading, then relate that to a detailed terrain database stored inside the unit and show a simulated view out the window on the display that precisely matches the view out the real window if you weren’t flying in rain, snow or fog. For the first time in decades the accident rate for small airplanes is dropping, probably because pilots don’t have to do mental calculations to orient themselves to earth anymore.
When I think of how far science has advanced in my lifetime, it boggles my mind that millions of people in this country would rather believe a politician or a loud mouthed radio personality who never finished college than thousands of scientists about whether the earth is warming due to human atmospheric pollution or not, and millions more choose to believe a preacher on the age of the earth than scientists who have spent their lives studying and measuring that age by a variety of methods including radioactive decay, the most precise measure of time we know.
The saddest part of all is that it is intentional ignorance! They refuse to study anything that might contradict their beliefs. They are just as sure they are right as that the sun goes around the earth.
Don Rogers
May 29, 2014
Last weekend for Memorial Day Carolyn and I went to Baker City, Oregon, to visit my father’s grave and put some decorations on it. He died ten years ago and I had only been back to visit it once. I notified my son in Albany, Oregon, and my half brother near Yakima, Washington, who both live in easy driving distance, that I would be up there and staying overnight.
My son couldn’t make it, but my brother Gene came down and we went out and found the grave. Gene had never met his father when he was living, since his mother left our father before he was born and then put him up for adoption at three years old. So this was his first meeting with our Dad.
Since my son couldn’t be there, he asked if I could get him the location of the grave by coordinates so he could visit later using his GPS. We both go geocaching occasionally, and with the latitude and longitude we can go to within a few feet of anywhere on earth.
So after we had decorated the grave and taken some photos, I went to the car and got the GPS unit, put it down on the grave stone, tapped in the menu for coordinates, and wrote down the result. Later I posted the photos and coordinates on Facebook.
After I got home the next day, just for fun, I shut down the browser on my desktop computer and opened Google Earth, a great program for seeing satellite pictures of anywhere on earth, even under the sea. First I searched for Baker City, Oregon, and the globe on my screen rotated and zoomed in until the whole city was showing on my screen. Then I deleted the name of the city and entered the coordinates of my Dad’s grave. As soon as I clicked on it, in less than a second, a little pushpin appeared, poked right through my Dad’s gravestone. Such a simple thing, and yet so awe inspiring to the mind of this nerd!
I’m seventy years old now, and I remember when the news of America’s first computer, Univac, was announced when I was a little boy. It could calculate the ballistic trajectory of an artillery shell in just minutes, rather than a bunch of people punching adding machines for days.
When I was twenty three, in the US Army on Okinawa. I got to program a test COBOL program on the world’s largest computer at the time, an IBM System 2- something-something or other. It processed data for all men and material in the western Pacific from Thailand, Viet Nam, the Philippines and Japan. It had five air conditioned rooms of iron core memory, four or five tape drives taller than I was, and a metal band printer that printed paper so fast it arced out of the back of the machine into a box in back. It was in the data processing center of the 2nd Logistical Command at Machinato, Okinawa.
Since I had high math scores on my battery of qualification tests when I entered the Army, I was drafted into a month of Computer Fundamentals and COBOL Language programming. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I enjoyed testing engines on a dynamometer, so when the training was done, I talked my way back to the shop. Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road not Taken” has special meaning to me. Knowing computer basics in 1966 could have led to another whole life, but I’ll never know.
I do know I’ve enjoyed the life I lived, so far! And I enjoy wondering how many of those old mainframe computers it would take to equal an iPhone.
Now that I have established my ancient nerdiness, let’s get back to the wonders of GPS. Most people don’t have a clue about the vast amount of scientific knowledge in physics, geometry, chemistry and calculus involved in that tiny little Global Positioning System. It’s not just that hand held unit, although that would be awesome enough.
To explain GPS easier, one needs to understand the history of radio navigation. First came the Non Directional Beacon, or NDB. It is just a radio sending out a roaring noise on a specific frequency, which a pilot can tune in to with a special radio receiver with a loop antenna. You can rotate the loop while listening to the signal and when the noise is loudest, you know the angle of your plane in relation to the direction to the beacon. Turn the plane until the beacon is out in front, and you’re going in the right direction. At least that’s what Amelia Earhart thought. Better than nothing, but not good enough to find a little island in the big Pacific Ocean.
Next came the Variable Omnidirectional Radiobeacon, known as VOR. These beacons sent out discrete signals that told a receiver on the airplane the exact bearing to the VOR. You could just track to the beacon, or if going to a place without a beacon, you could tune in two or three VORs and draw lines on a chart to each, and where the lines cross is your position. It is precise enough to get you to an airport, but not necessarily in the middle of the runway.
Later some of the VORs got an enhancement called DME, or Distance Measuring Equipment. Now each signal gave you the bearing to the beacon and it told you how far it was to the beacon, so with one calculation you could find a point on the map. But it was still your calculation--the data only told you where the VOR was--you had to figure out where you were.
GPS was developed for the military in the 70’s and 80’s, and in 2000 the system was made available with full precision for civilian use. Instead of ground based beacons, the government launched 24 satellites into precise orbits around the earth. Think of the calculations involved in fuel burn, thrust, stability and vectoring to place each satellite in the exact orbit necessary. Yep, that’s rocket science!
Since the satellites are not stationary, they must be constantly calculating their exact location above the earth to the centimeter, and then streaming that data down to earth where the ground base unit can receive it. The data includes the exact time and the exact location (including elevation) many times a second. The unit in your hand or car or airplane receives signals from six or eight satellites and instantly calculates the precise distance to each satellite and then calculates it’s position in relationship to all of them. Then it can display latitude and longitude, or in the more modern ones like the one in my car the position is marked on a moving map.
The very latest ones for airplanes find your position, elevation and heading, then relate that to a detailed terrain database stored inside the unit and show a simulated view out the window on the display that precisely matches the view out the real window if you weren’t flying in rain, snow or fog. For the first time in decades the accident rate for small airplanes is dropping, probably because pilots don’t have to do mental calculations to orient themselves to earth anymore.
When I think of how far science has advanced in my lifetime, it boggles my mind that millions of people in this country would rather believe a politician or a loud mouthed radio personality who never finished college than thousands of scientists about whether the earth is warming due to human atmospheric pollution or not, and millions more choose to believe a preacher on the age of the earth than scientists who have spent their lives studying and measuring that age by a variety of methods including radioactive decay, the most precise measure of time we know.
The saddest part of all is that it is intentional ignorance! They refuse to study anything that might contradict their beliefs. They are just as sure they are right as that the sun goes around the earth.
Don Rogers
May 29, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
David Koresh and Waco
David Koresh and Waco
We just got our New Yorker magazine (March 31) today, (yeah, there are a few liberals in Nevada) and found an article by Malcolm Gladwell entitled “Sacred and Profane”. It is the best, most comprehensive story of the Branch Davidians and the assault in Waco of their small group of fervent believers I have read yet.
I feel that Mr Gladwell might have been a Seventh-day Adventist at some time in his life, although I don’t know that. But he understands far better than most people do the thought processes of Adventists and their worship of the Bible as the written Word of God. They believe every word literally, and study to make sense of contradictory texts, giving no credence at all to the idea that the Bible is not one book, but many books written by different people at different times with wildly varying messages.
David Koresh studied the Bible just like other Adventists, except he did it longer and more diligently than just about any others did. He also studied the writings of the Adventist prophet Ellen G. White, and was extensively familiar with every thing she had written, even those older books that were no longer in print because their Victorian and Puritanical messages were becoming an embarrassment to the modern church. In every case where Koresh found himself in a debate with an Adventist preacher, he won handily, and usually took members from that preacher’s flock for his own.
Those who left the church to follow Koresh were also the most devout, diligent Bible studiers of the church. They were well educated and indoctrinated in the Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, and enjoyed studying the Bible for hours every day. The popular belief is that Koresh forced them to listen to him give Bible studies, but the testimony of Clive Doyle, a survivor of the last assault, is that they all begged Koresh for more, and that Koresh even complained once that he wished they would do their own Bible studying.
Unwittingly, the FBI tactics were following and confirming Koresh’s interpretation of the “seven seals” prophecy in Revelation, Chapter 6. In the words of the article:
“...Mount Carmel’s adherents thought they were living through the “fifth seal” --- a late stage in the end of time, during which believers are asked to suffer through a round of bloodshed, to “wait a little season,” and then to suffer a second round.”
“This was why the Davidians wouldn’t leave. They had been through the first round of violence, with the initial A.T.F. raid. Now they were doing as they believed the Bible compelled them to do --- waiting.”
When the FBI negotiators threatened the people inside the compound with violence if they didn’t come out, they thought they were making a reasonable demand. They didn’t know they were promising the Davidians exactly what the Bible predicted. Koresh and his followers were convinced that if they just held true to God’s word they would wake up on that Great Judgement Day standing before God as righteous martyrs for His sake.
You must read the article --- I don’t have space or permission to reprint it here. Even better, you could read the book that is the inspiration for the article, “A Journey to Waco” by Clive Doyle. Another book worth reading is the book “Learning Lessons from Waco” by Jayne Docherty, which describes the futility of negotiating with true believers as you might with bank robbers.
I want to expand on the mistaken belief that the Bible is one inerrant book. That belief is making an idol of a bunch of paper and ink wrapped in the skin of an animal. Only God is inerrant and perfect. Even Jesus did not take the Old Testament literally. (To state the obvious, there was no New Testament when Jesus walked the earth.)
In Matthew 5:38, Jesus quotes Leviticus 24:20. Then he immediately contradicts that text. He says not to follow that text which commands “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” but do NOT avenge the attack, and respond by allowing another attack with no resistance (turn the other cheek).
In Matthew 5:43 he quotes Leviticus again, chapter 19, verse 18 which says to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Then he says, “but I say unto you” love your enemy. Another direct contradiction. I think Jesus had a real problem with Leviticus.
In John 8:3-11 we find Jesus changing the punishment for adultery. In Leviticus 20:10 the punishment for adultery is death, but Jesus just said, “Go and sin no more.” My guess is if we threw out the whole book of Leviticus, Jesus wouldn’t mind much.
In Matthew 5:31,32 Jesus changes the laws on divorce found in Deuteronomy 24:1, tightening them up a bit. That was one of the few times he made it stricter. Three times he made Sabbath keeping easier by allowing a man to take up his bed and carry it on the Sabbath, explained it was OK to get your cow out of a ditch on the Sabbath, and allowed his disciples to thresh grain by hand to satisfy their hunger on the Sabbath.
Jesus never told anyone to take every text literally or that scripture is without error. That idea was proposed hundreds of years after Jesus died. To worship the Bible as a perfect, error free thing is idolatry, pure and simple. Swearing an oath with your hand on the Bible is not likely to improve your testimony if you intend to lie anyway. I know people who are careful to always put the Bible on top of any stack of books, but haven’t opened it to actually read what it says in years. That is simple idolatry--worship of some magical property in the book.
If one reads the Bible, it becomes apparent that each book was written by separate individuals with different agendas and different messages, not always in agreement with each other.
Compare Numbers 31:17, 18 “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him, but all the women children that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourself” with Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” I have trouble believing that that same spirit that said kill all the boy babies and their mothers, but keep the girl babies for your slaves is the same entity that says love your enemies.
Take 1 Corinthians 7:1,9 which is dour old Paul on marriage: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman ... but if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.” with the poetry of Song of Solomon 5:3-8,
I sleep--
but my heart awakens.
It's the voice
of my lover
knocking at my door,
saying,
“Open to me, my love,
my dove, my perfect one!
For my head is
full with dew,
and my hair with the
drops of the night!
I have taken off
my coat—why should
I put it on again?
I have washed my feet--
why should they touch
the street again?”
My lover
put his hand
on my entrance.
A tremor ran through
my belly.
I rose up to
open to my lover,
my hands anointed
with oil and perfume.
My fingers ran about
the handle of his lock.
I opened wide
to my lover,
but my lover had
withdrawn himself,
and was gone.
My soul failed
whenever he talked
I called him
but he gave no answer.
I searched for him,
but I could not find him.
The police found me
in the street,
looking for my lover.
They beat me.
They stripped me
and put me in jail.
But I've done
nothing wrong!
I'm begging
all the women
in this city,
If you see my lover,
tell him
I'm sick with love!
That comparison may not be fair, because I translated the archaic King James language to modern English to enhance the poetry and romance, but you get the idea. One writer could not have done both of these texts.
Lastly, let’s compare a couple of New Testament texts. First, James 2:10,14, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all ... what does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?” with Galations 2:16,20,21, “...that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified....I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”
There is profound disagreement here between James (and Peter) and Paul (and Barnabus). Christianity has been trying to smash these opposing views together into one unified doctrine for two thousand years, but Acts 15:2 says they were NOT in agreement, and in Galations 2:11 Paul says he got right up in Peter’s face! I don’t think they ever came to an agreement, except that Peter would go back to Jerusalem and quit bothering the people in Paul’s churches in Asia Minor and Greece.
The books of the Bible can be fascinating reading, especially if you also read the other contemporaneous books written by other Christian disciples about the early churches and their leaders. The actual history is far more interesting than the legends and myths that modern man has twisted into a Bible.
Don Rogers
March 28, 2014
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