Projecting, not criticizing

Here’s a story that will have you shaking your head: “Obama Says Rivals Clinton, McCain pandering on gas tax.” http://am1280thepatriot.townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2008/04/29/obama_says_rivals_clinton,_mccain_pandering_on_gas_tax 
The shape shifting people pleaser–whose inane feel good message “yes we can” can mean absolutely anything–is accusing his opponents of pandering! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Obama is great when he is vague, when he can utter platitudes with no one to question him. He truly aspires to be all things to all people while keeping his far left socialist agenda hidden as much as possible. Now, I’m no psychiatrist, but to me this accusation of pandering seems to be his projection of his own motives on Clinton and McCain. It does show his commitment to high taxes not to jump on board and endorse the gas tax holiday.

Unsound Judgement

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the work of God might be displayed in him.” John 9:1-3. (ESV)

If anyone hears my words, and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. John 12:47-48. (ESV)

In light of the controversy surrounding Barak Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright, those who have any intellectual honesty who wish to defend Obama point to pastor John Hagee’s endorsement of John McCain as if there is any similarity between the two pastors. And of course, there isn’t, and McCain probably hasn’t attended Hagee’s church once let alone year after year. But there is a legitmate problem with Hagee, one which when asked to explain (at least when I heard him on the Dennis Prager show, he did issue a good rectraction by email, apparently, but then on Prager reaffirmed his original statement, more or less) he has only dug himself further. I don’t know enough about pastor Hagee to question his theology in any meaningful way. But he has made statements which have not only called his theology into question, but also his commitment to the gospel. For these statements not only reflect on him but on Christians in general. The statements I am referring to are his statements about hurricane Katrina, in which he proclaimed that New Orleans was hit by a hurricane because of a gay pride parade that was scheduled for a few days after Katrina hit. This is one in a long line of foolishly judgemental statements which the most public of evangelical pastors have made.
If there is anything that could make Christ look bad, if there is something that could make the gospel less effective, I can’t think of it. Hagee’s retraction statement says it most eloquently: ”As a believing Christian, I see the hand of God in everything that happens here on earth, both the blessings and the curses.  But ultimately neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise.  No matter what the cause of the storm, my heart goes out to all who suffered in this terrible tragedy.  There but for the grace of God go any one of us.” The only thing that I can think of is that these pastors allow pride to convince them that they do know the mind of God. It is a daily struggle to find out God’s will for our personal lives, how one can pronounce the will of God for thousands (apart from that which is expressly written in the Bible) is beyond me. When someone does proclaim to know the mind of God, they bring the gospel to disrepute.

The Myth of Scarcity

Part of the great difference between a liberal and conservative world-view is the perception of scarcity. In the liberal world-view, scarcity is abundant. The paradigm of an informed and conscientious conservative has an abundance of abundance. The liberal will always see things as win-lose or lose-lose. A true conservative seeks win-win and rejects win-lose thinking. Liberals see problems, conservatives see opportunity. Liberals seek help from others, while conservatives look to help themselves. Certainly these are generalizations and generalizations always have their exceptions and both sides are acting and thinking outside of these paradigms but these are their ideals. A very vivid illustration of the scarcity paradigm was displayed by none other than Michelle Obama when she proclaimed that some people would have to give up “part of their pie” so we could have universal health care. It seems that while Barak Obama is going around the country trying to avoid (some might say ineptly) saying what he really thinks in order to maintain the mirage that he is a “uniter,” Michelle Obama has been imbibing on her personal bottle of truth serum. And the truth is in this case quite ugly. Hers is a most desolate and foreboding world-view. Hers is a worldwide poker game where no one adds any chips and there are no rebuys. There are only winners and losers, and much of that is determined by the number of chips they started out with. And the only way to progress in poker is to take chips from other players.

Everywhere you look the media is proclaiming the sky is falling and we will most definitely run out of the most essential elements for life and prosperity like water, food, oil and Chipotle burritos. There is something that obviously is appealing about these stories or there wouldn’t be so many of them. The reason behind these stories is less important than the fact that these crises rarely ever are of any consequence. But those in the media who proclaim these shortages luckily don’t ever have to give account for their dire predictions. As Dennis Prager would say, being on the left means never having to say you’re sorry.

Thankfully, life isn’t a poker game. The number of chips isn’t limited in any conventional sense, and it is economic freedom that ensures this. It is scarcity thinking that ironically creates (short term) scarcity. And giving things away like health care will always create scarcity because it will always make demand infinite. Saying that we won’t run out of things like water or oil or doctors doesn’t mean there is an infinite supply. It is simply a function of economics. As demand for anything increases, supply will increase, though not necessarily as fast or as much as everyone wishes.  The impetus for these stories, for this constant insistence that this society or world will end soon and abruptly is twofold: a distrust of the free market and a desire for a larger, stronger government. If we passed a law tomorrow that made gas $1 a gallon we would end up with a gas shortage in no time. Not because there isn’t enough oil, but because no one could afford to pump oil or process it into gasoline or distribute it to gas stations. If consumers don’t directly pay for their own healthcare, they will have an infinite demand for medical care. And people who can’t afford to fly overseas and pay cash for their healthcare will have to wait months just to be seen by a doctor. More importantly, the tax load will be extremely burdensome, particularly who those who are forced to give “more of their pie.” They just might decide to move their pie somewhere where it won’t all be taken from them.

 

The NFL draft, or: much ado about nothing

If there’s any proof that we as a society have waaay too much time on our hands it would be the absurdity of the NFL draft. Granted, as I am currently half heartedly watching the NFL draft I certainly fall in this category of people who have too much time on their hands. This is why I am very skeptical when I hear anyone say that they don’t have time to do this or that, usually something that has a priori benefits. Priorities are those things that we make time for. If something is of a high priority, we find time to do it, we lose sleep or drop lesser priority activities to make sure that we do it. My point is this: believe it or not people literally spend hours of their life watching and waiting for someone to step to a podium to say the name of someone they don’t know or will ever meet to watch them play a game they will never participate in. What a bizarre thing this is! Perhaps the most amazing thing is how seriously some people take this this whole process. Like the probable countless blogs on the NFL draft or the number of commentators on multiple networks willing to disect each and every one of the two hundred or so players that will be drafted to the extent of measuring the most meaningless minutia. Personally I would think it would be fascinating to hear someone analyze the diction and pronunciation that Roger Goodell uses when he announces each draft pick. I’m just an English nerd, but that would make for fascinating television if you ask me.

A note about my subtitle

My subtitle for my blog, “simplifying the complicated and complicating the simple” is simply my philosophy of common knowledge. Usually what is believed to be simple is vastly more complicated and vice versa. It takes a willingness to dig beyond surface knowledge to know this but it is almost invariably true. “Simple” things like the microscopic cell are unbelievably complex and things as complicated as global economics (at least the main concepts) can be understood in very simple terms. To clarify, the complex can be explained in generalizations but it’s no substitute for depth of understanding. One of my favorite quotes is by the Swiss historian Jacob Burkhardt who said “the essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity.” Those who deny the complexity of issues like universal health care, global warming and gun control do so because they want the power that is given to them in their simplistic answers. While simplification is desirable for understanding, it must acknowledge the underlying complexity and cannot be followed by an immediate call for action. This is the media’s favorite thing to do, which is why we are constantly bombarded with crises and never allowed to examine whether or not they’re real. The real danger that most of these supposed crises present is their supposed cure. The cure is invariably worse than the disease.

A new home?

Ok this is it, I decided to get a blog that looks like a real blog and maybe I will actually use it frequently, possibly several times a year. I might even try to write here a couple times a week or maybe even once a day! I know, it’s craziness! Well this counts as one today, so I will work on another tomorrow. I don’t know if I will keep posting on myspace and the like or not, I guess I will see if anyone reads this.