The Environmental Working Group alerts us to the "Secret Farm Bill" being hatched by Congressional leaders and the Super Committee. Among the atrocities: the leaders of the House and Senate Ag committees (the former of which South Dakota's Rep. Kristi Noem is a part) want to hack $4 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program while protecting subsidies for individual corn and cotton growers making six digits.
Check those priorities: if you're a family of three scraping by on $23,801 a year, you don't get food stamps. But if you're a farm couple making as much as $1.9 million, you can still get crop subsidies.
Come on, Rep. Noem: stick a fork in that plan!
For years now, commodity organizations have used the "image" of the family farm as a disguise to promote their agenda of greed(witness Ag united in South Dakota). They depend heavily on federal law to mandate mandatory checkoffs which funnels resources into their game plans. In Washington, D.C., they used their muscle to enlarge federal subsidies for large farmers mainly through crop insurance. Taxpayers would be better off and real family farmers also if the heavy fat calf was weaned off the government teat. Returning risk to agriculture would make family farming more viable. Subsidizing that risk just encourages more concentration of land and other resources into fewer and fewer hands. Large farms are now the 21st Century "Welfare Queens".
Mark Bittman lists what the current farm programs are subsidizing in terms of food and nutrition. He is more optimistic than I about alternatives.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/no-turkeys-here/?hp
Is anyone curious what Canada's business plan is for the United States? It seems the fed isn't to concerned about local priorities as long as it keeps power for itself in the name of commerce.
Oops, meant to post this on Wharf, the topic after this one.
This is complete bogus news Cory and you know it. Spin the truth or quit trying to elate your chosen few liberal buddies who pay your rent here.................
Charlie H., the blog has yet to pay the rent. Help me out; hit that Tip Jar!
When you're done with that, feel free to tell me which part of this news is "bogus." Is Congress not going to cut SNAP and conservation? Is it going to rescind farm welfare for farmers making six digits? Believe me, Charlie H., I like the truth, and if anything I said above is untrue, I'd like to know.
Charlie,
You are a good man and I really like you but you are the one who is wrong on this issue. I'm keeping a close eye on the supercommittee to see if they get a chance to sneak into the bill.
The main stream farm media has been reporting this all week including WNAX out of Yankton. Last report was the new "super crop insurance" was scored much more than allowed under the spending rules. There is estimates that the new farm bill proposed by the ag leaders would spend more than the present program. Even my conservatives foes the Farm Bureau is having some trouble with the proposal.
The budget year started in October and we have a "Super Committee" deciding the country's fate. They can't come to an agreement.
Cory the word you are searching for to describe the budgetary ability of our current Congress as a whole is "incompetent".
There is no excuse not to be able to pass a budget on time.
It would be really bad if they did pass the farm bill through the super committee. It would be like the Dems passing Obamacare. (and we know how Kristi felt about that.
The solution is the eliminate the Department of Ag, along with the Department of Ed. Suppose that would close in on the $1.2 trillion goal that the super committe can't find?
Let's see... $69 billion for Education, $132 billion for Ag... only one trillion to go!
The solution was known when the super-committee was formed. The Bush Tax Cuts are scheduled to expire in 2013. Let that happen and it's over. Goals met, without changing anything else.
Long term, there are of course other concern that need to be addressed. But none are as urgent as putting people back to work NOW. For all intents and purposes, the immediate debt situation is not an issue. It's time to invest and quit fiddling around at the margins.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/1102/Super-committee-Let-Bush-tax-cuts-expire-and-your-work-will-be-done
Bill,
Christian Science is part of the New Age Theocracy.
The idea is to shrink the bloated government that makes the wealthy even more wealthy. Even if the rates are increased, they wealthy have their loophooles.
Would you prefer I cite other sources regarding the veracity of my assertion, about the Bush Tax Cuts and Job Creation, Sibby?
If so, which flavor would you find most acceptable?
p.s. Sibby, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, you know?
"Would you prefer I cite other sources regarding the veracity of my assertion, about the Bush Tax Cuts and Job Creation, Sibby? "
No, I am just pointing out what most don't know about Christian Science...it is actually anti-Christian.
They seem Christian to me, Steve. Not sure what it is you require of someone in order for them to qualify as Christian.
Bill,
"Christian Scientists profess a belief in God, but what kind of a God? Certainly not the same kind of God the Bible presents! The God of Christian Science is not a personal God, but a Pantheistic God. That is, their God is the impersonal soul of the universe, a force, the sum total of all created. "God is all" declares Mrs. Eddy, with a very Hinduistic flavor."
http://mmoutreachinc.com/cult_groups/christian_science.html
A "a Pantheistic God" is the theology of the New Age, not Biblical Christianity.
Why wouldn't you want to read what the church has to say about its own beliefs instead of what some other website has to say about them, Sibby.
http://christianscience.com/what-is-christian-science/what-about-jesus
"Why wouldn’t you want to read what the church has to say about its own beliefs instead of what some other website has to say about them, Sibby."
Bill,
Because we need to beware of the deception of false teachers.
Cory, the $1.2 trillion is over 10 years. Looks like I just found $2 trillion by cutting Ag and Ed. With just a small amount of effort, I am sure we could double that. Of course the wealthy ruling class won't allow us to proceed with the cuts.
Steve, how do you know your source is not a false teacher? Their info looks pretty sketchy to me, compared to the page I sent you. What do you find in the Christian Science page that you feel is false? And why do you think they would tell people what they believe on their blog if it's not really what they believe? What would be the point in that?
Dang! I stand corrected. But remember: $2 trillion over ten years doesn't even reverse the debt trend, does it? How about some Ron Paul cuts to the military?
I often wonder if Ron Paul will have his moment in this primary.
I like the domestic side of Paul. I would like him as president just because all of the phonies like Noem would have to start eating the cuts they pretend to advocate for. No sacred cows.
I keep wanting to like Ron Paul (again, my mortal weakness for underdogs). I keep thinking he would bring up some of the most interesting conversations by, as you say, Mike, not respecting the sacred cows of conventional wisdom. But each time I catch him on TV, he starts saying nutty stuff. Plus, I have this odd little fear that his hands-off libertarianism would open the door for the theocrats to go ape in the reddest states and start deporting liberals like me.
As a precursor in sounding like I agree with you that the sky is falling for anyone who needs food stamps I know of a number of farmers locally who at one time qualified for free or reduced school lunches because of their low take home pay after paying the fuel bill, the fertilizer bill, the insurance bill, the seed bill, the vet bill, the interest bill, the tractor repair bill, etc. Many urban dwelling today are covered by not only that program but have a multitude of various Federal programs that make sure no poor starve. I just don't see a lot of skinny American's anywhere Cory.
Today most farmers are producing a positive cash flow statement and making more money than they ever have before. What most numbers don't show us are one; the amount of government involvement other countries put into their ag programs and two; the investment needed today to actually raise a crop and market it. That said the problem today is that market price is determined by both the Chicago Merc and supply and demand. Commodity run ups also help everyone pay more for the fuel they put in their cars and farmers fuel their equipment which is totally out of touch with reality. The one thing most farmers will agree on is the amount of insurance subsidies seem to now overshadow government subsidies and that risk is a huge taxpayer investment in keeping food flowing into the supermarket chain. Surely as profits go up the insurance subsidies should be scaled back. We do not see a run of bankruptcies in farm country today as we did back in the late 70's.
I have not inspected the data from this year but knowing that food pantries are working overtime to keep stocks filled we all can conclude that times are very hard on the poor. If you remember three years ago when Rep. Vanderlinde came forward with a bill to allow anyone convicted of a drug felony to come clean and move back into the system allowing food stamps I was standing up on the House floor pushing for passage because the law then only hurt the children. Vanderlinde's bill passed and anyone with a drug felony who goes through the hoops and cleans up their act can once again apply for food stamps.
Spinning this story as a Noem push to squeeze the life blood out of any food assistance program is bogus and saying Congress is going to do anything until it actually happens is nothing but hyperbole.
Bill,
Here is a link to the Late Dr. Ron Carlson who exposes the flase teachings of Freemasonry-Christian Science-Reincarnation-Transcendental Meditation-Jehovah Witnesses-Mormonism or in other words the New Age movement:
http://changinglivesonline.org/item-by-category/articles/item/769-freemasonry-christian-science-reincarnation-transcendental-meditation-jehovah-witnesses-mormonism-ron-carlson.html?tmpl=component&print=1
"But remember: $2 trillion over ten years doesn’t even reverse the debt trend, does it? How about some Ron Paul cuts to the military?"
Cory, you are correct and yes the military needs to be looked at. Didn't we get the guy who caused 911? Do you know that we did not create a democracy in Iraq. Instead it is an Islamic Theocracy.
Again, the NWO will not allow us to eliminate the deficit spending. That is how they pull wealth out of the US to fund their military & intelligence operations.
"I have this odd little fear that his hands-off libertarianism would open the door for the theocrats to go ape in the reddest states and start deporting liberals like me."
Cory, you are already working for the New Age Theocrats. And so is Bill.
Who is Dr. Ron Carlson, Sibby? What makes him an authority on these matters? I can't find his bona fides anywhere. Can you?
"What makes him an authority on these matters?"
He did more than just read the Bible, he actually studied it. Here is a link to a book I read of his:
http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Facts%C2%AE-False-Teachings-Carlson/dp/0736912142/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321975252&sr=1-1
And if you don't trust him, there is Dr. Walter Martin; Here is a link to his Kingdom of the Cults:
http://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cults-Walter-Martin/dp/0764228218/ref=pd_sim_b_1
I did find this critique of one of Dr. Carlson's lectures. Looks like he might not be very intellectually credible, Sibby.
http://scienceantiscience.blogspot.com/2008/08/dr-ron-carlson-takes-over-for-kent.html
" Looks like he might not be very intellectually credible, Sibby."
Sounds like a compliment Bill. Remember when I tied Blavantsky and Tehosophy to the New Age Movement. Here is the tie to Chrsitian Science:
In 1873, Blavatsky traveled to the U.S., where with the Spiritualist Colonel Olcott, she founded the American Theosophical Society, whose headquarters became Pasadena, California. Colonel Olcott had been involved in seances at this time on a farm in Chittenden, Vermont, with Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science as co-extensive with Theosophy. Later, Olcott accompanied Blavatsky to Adyar, India, which became the spiritual center of the cult.
http://www.exposingsatanism.org/satanism_the_lucifer_trust2.htm
So Sibby, you admit Dr. Carlson doesn't have much of a resume?
Not qualified as either an historian, theologian, philosopher or scientist? Not a recognized academic authority?
Then why take his word for anything? Especially when it appears that he is so frequently mistaken in his arguments?
Isn't that kind of like what you accuse other people of doing? Just accepting something someone says blindly without checking it out for yourself?
Sibby, I could tie a ham sandwich to the New Age movement if I wanted to. But that wouldn't say anything about either ham sandwiches or what you call the New Age movement. It would be as meaningless as the things you are showing us here.
Bill, the critique on Carlson is based on the assumption that carbon dating is accurate. See this:
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c007.html
"It would be as meaningless as the things you are showing us here."
Bill, all I can do is blow the trumpet.
"Not a recognized academic authority?"
Bill, for a guy you don't trust, you sure give a lot of great compliments to.
Steve, when in the history of discourse, did ignorance start to trump knowledge? How did your distain for intelligence arise? God gave you a brain, why would he not want you to use it? Perhaps those who encourage you to reject your God-given gifts are the "false prophets." They can win every argument simply by telling you it's a sin to think to much. Sorry, I can't go there, Sibby.
"Steve, when in the history of discourse, did ignorance start to trump knowledge?"
Bill,
Why arge that there is only two choices, knowledge and ignorance? Ever think that there are two kinds of knowledge, one based on truth, the other based on lies? I argue that knowledge based on lies is worse than being stupid. So I continue to blow the trumpet.
Fine, Sibby, then if you reject logic and reasoning you should stop trying to use it in your arguments. It makes you a hypocrite. Your only valid position can be: "I believe what I believe because I believe God told me to believe it." And you have a right to that position. I won't argue with it.
Bill, I do not reject logic and reason. If you use logic and reason based on lies, then you have a real problem. The science of evolution, global warming, and carbon dating are not based on truth. They are man-made myths. The oldest lie running is man can use evolution to become a god. It goes back to Genesis.
Bill, since I am blowing the trumpet, here is an analysis on,"The Perils of New Age Pantheistic Monism":
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/10/perils-of-new-age-pantheistic-monism.html
“I believe what I believe because I believe God told me to believe it.â€
That is the very essence of the conclusion to the article on carbon dating you provided, Steve.
If you want to save yourself (and every rational person you want to argue with) a lot of time, you can download this book here, for free.
http://www.filestube.com/t/the+counter+creationism+handbook
In it you will find all the arguments on both sides of this issue.
Once you have digested it all thoroughly, give some thought as to whether or not you really can, in good faith, advance any other arguments other than the one I have provided for you above.
And if not, then come back and explain to us how you feel morally justified to challenge anyone else's right to believe as they please, even as that right has been granted to you.
And why anyone should be forced to listen to you blow your self-righteous, narrow-minded, rationally incoherent, out-of-tune-with-the- universe trumpet?
"And why anyone should be forced to listen to you blow your self-righteous, narrow-minded, rationally incoherent, out-of-tune-with-the- universe trumpet?"
Bill, No one has to listen to the trumpet. Now use the shoes you accuse me of wearing and walk away, while I dust off the shoes I am wearing.
"The oldest lie running is man can use evolution to become a god. It goes back to Genesis."
Sorry, we can't have this discussion, Steve, because we can't even agree on how old the supposed "lie" is. We would never be able to agree on any of the terms you have used here. The discussion would thus be pointless.
What I'm really trying to figure out is how we went from a "Secret Farm Bill" to the evolution of God?
Charlie, you'll have to ask Sibby. It usually starts when he throws something like "Christian Science is part of the New Age Theocracy." into the middle of an otherwise coherent conversation. I have no idea why he does it. He calls it "blowing the trumpet."
p.s. Charlie, as you predicted, nothing was enacted by the super committee. I thought that was a bogus idea from the beginning. Just another way to kick the can down the road.
Charlie, Bill brought Chrsitian Science into the thead and I simply wanted to warn the readers that Christian Science is anti-Christian. The Bible says I have an obligation to blow the trumpet when the enemy arrives. I suggest you take a look at the links I provided in my attempt to confront Bill's deceptions.
"That said the problem today is that market price is determined by both the Chicago Merc and supply and demand."
Charlie, the grain markets are controlled by the WTO, which is a component of the NWO. Here is an excerpt from one of the links I provided above:
"With the idea of “discovering of the Messiah within you†we approach two main axioms of the New Age, one flowing from the other. One of these is New Age (or pantheistic) monism: namely the belief that everything is united. While every sort of difference between different substances – “between Joseph and Judy, between Joseph and the tree, or between Judy and Godâ€1 – all seem to be differences, nonetheless they are not. The significance of this dogma for New Agers is emphasized by Jonathan Stone, who considers it an essential component of the New World Order: “I feel that the World Order is approaching, in which science will merge with the monistic philosophy and a new consciousness will conquer the whole world. The distinguishing unifying characteristic of the World Order will be the belief that ‘all substances, all beings are one.’â€
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/10/perils-of-new-age-pantheistic-monism.html
Basically DC's agenda is drive by the NWO. The public education system is establishing a New Age Theocracy whose theology is pantheistic monism. Bill has admitted being a believer in monism in other threads. The "unity" that is being pushed is code for a "New World Order". Remember daddy Bush was a big promoter of the NWO. Those who are in charge of implementing the NWO work in "secret", this the "SECRET Farm Bill".
...aren't you glad you asked, Charlie?
One thing is certain at Madville Times! I get way more than I bargained or paid for. :)
Sibby, in regard to the unity of the universe, I kinda got the idea from that crazy old "New Ager" Albert Einstein. Of course, with his being Jewish and all, he's probably not as good an authority on these matters as your "Dr. Carlson," but he does have a fairly significant resume.
Here is a letter Dr. Einstein wrote to his grieving friend whose son had just died from polio.
I notice it was written about a month before I was born:
February 12, 1950
Dear Mr. Marcus:
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.
With my best wishes, sincerely yours,
Albert Einstein.
Mr. Robert S.Marcus World Jewish Congress
1834 Broadway New York 23,N.Y.
Bill, that is not suprising given Einstein was a Freemason.
What is your source on that, Sibby? I've never heard that before.
Here is a well sourced list of Famous Freemasons, Sibby. I don't see Einstein on the list. Don't you think if he was a known fremason, he would be on this list?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Freemasons
Hey, Charlie, at the rates I charge, it's not hard to give you more than paid for!
...boy, Cory for being a great champion of the truth, Sibby sure seems to have a lot of his facts wrong. Just sayin'.
Bill, you still using wikipedia and you think you can question the credibility of others?
Check out ths scientists on this list:
http://www.illuminati-news.com/famous-freemasons.htm
Cory I don't demand much; just the truth.
Steve, the Wikipedia entry cites its sources. Your list does not. You need to have a source. Anybody can put anybody's name on a list. Joe McCarthy proved that.
I've posted this for you before, Sibby, but I have a feeling you've not yet fully digested it. Pay special attention to the last two sections. "Renegades and Pedants" and "The Double Sufferer."
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/conspiracy_theory/the_paranoid_mentality/the_paranoid_style.html
Here are some excerpts from each section:
"Renegades and Pedants"
A final characteristic of the paranoid style is related to the quality of its pedantry. One of the impressive things about paranoid literature is the contrast between its fantasied conclusions and the almost touching concern with factuality it invariably shows.
It produces heroic strivings for evidence to prove that the unbelievable is the only thing that can be believed.
Of course, there are highbrow, lowbrow, and middlebrow paranoids, as there are likely to be in any political tendency. But respectable paranoid literature not only starts from certain moral commitments that can indeed be justified but also carefully and all but obsessively accumulates :evidence.â€
The difference between this “evidence†and that commonly employed by others is that it seems less a means of entering into normal political controversy than a means of warding off the profane intrusion of the secular political world.
The paranoid seems to have little expectation of actually convincing a hostile world, but he can accumulate evidence in order to protect his cherished convictions from it.
...
"The Double Sufferer."
The situation becomes worse when the representatives of a particular social interest—perhaps because of the very unrealistic and unrealizable nature of its demands—are shut out of the political process.
Having no access to political bargaining or the making of decisions, they find their original conception that the world of power is sinister and malicious fully confirmed.
They see only the consequences of power—and this through distorting lenses—and have no chance to observe its actual machinery.
A distinguished historian has said that one of the most valuable things about history is that it teaches us how things do not happen. It is precisely this kind of awareness that the paranoid fails to develop. He has a special resistance of his own, of course, to developing such awareness, but circumstances often deprive him of exposure to events that might enlighten him—and in any case he resists enlightenment.
We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, since he is afflicted not only by the real world, with the rest of us, but by his fantasies as well.
Another excerpt from the "Emulating the Enemy" section. See if this sounds familiar, Sibby:
“The enemy is clearly delineated: he is a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman—sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations.
He wills, indeed he manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way. He makes crises, starts runs on banks, causes depressions, manufactures disasters, and then enjoys and profits from the misery he has produced. The paranoid’s interpretation of history is distinctly personal: decisive events are not taken as part of the stream of history, but as the consequences of someone’s will.
Very often the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he controls the press; he has unlimited funds; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (brainwashing); he has a special technique for seduction (the Catholic confessional).
It is hard to resist the conclusion that this enemy is on many counts the projection of the self; both the ideal and the unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him. The enemy may be the cosmopolitan intellectual, but the paranoid will outdo him in the apparatus of scholarship, even of pedantry.
Secret organizations set up to combat secret organizations give the same flattery. The Ku Klux Klan imitated Catholicism to the point of donning priestly vestments, developing an elaborate ritual and an equally elaborate hierarchy.
The John Birch Society emulates Communist cells and quasi-secret operation through “front†groups, and preaches a ruthless prosecution of the ideological war along lines very similar to those it finds in the Communist enemy.* Spokesmen of the various fundamentalist anti-Communist “crusades†openly express their admiration for the dedication and discipline the Communist cause calls forth.
On the other hand, the sexual freedom often attributed to the enemy, his lack of moral inhibition, his possession of especially effective techniques for fulfilling his desires, give exponents of the paranoid style an opportunity to project and express unacknowledgeable aspects of their own psychological concerns.
Catholics and Mormons—later, Negroes and Jews—have lent themselves to a preoccupation with illicit sex. Very often the fantasies of true believers reveal strong sadomasochistic outlets, vividly expressed, for example, in the delight of anti-Masons with the cruelty of Masonic punishments.
Bill, No one has to listen to the trumpet. Now use the shoes you accuse me of wearing and walk away, while I dust off the shoes I am wearing.
Bill that was truly enlightening. I have always maintained that no one runs for office with the intent of hurting the organization he wishes a spot governing. That said there are exceptions to this rule; though mainly in the perception of the oppositie prevailing wishes of ones opponents. Thirdly I laugh out loud every time I hear the phrase "Throw all the bums out!"; for that means me too.
During the 1960 Barry Goldwater had coined the term "egghead" to refer to the perversely over educated, such as Hofstadter, who were simply unable to see reality and simply passed it off as "paranoia". As the reader goes through the book he or she sees where Goldwater was coming from. It's a shame Goldwater is not alive to point this out to today's leftist followers of Hofstadter.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2TVD7318NVXKG/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2TVD7318NVXKG
Glad you enjoyed it Charlie. Thanks. Yes, that was one of the big lessons of the 60's/70's era for those of us railing against "the system." We forgot that in America we ARE the system.
The only way we're not is if we refuse to participate. Those that want to "tear down government" have a right to that sentiment to some degree, but to run for office guaranteeing to do it if elected seems as absurd to me as apparently it does to you. Glad to hear it, brother.
"I have always maintained that no one runs for office with the intent of hurting the organization he wishes a spot governing. That said there are exceptions to this rule"
Charlie, is that why your votes in the last legislative session supported the Republican platform less than 40% of the time?
Those that want to “tear down governmentâ€
There is a flat out fal;e accusation. Reforming a bad government into a good government does have to mean tearing it down. How does those paranoid shoes feel Bill now that you have chosen to wear them?
Hey Sibby, Barry Goldwater was a 33rd Degree Freemason.
Ooops!
Now what?!
http://www.whale.to/b/33.html (also on the list you provided)
Re-read what I wrote, Steve. You don't get to decide what I said.
Yes Bill, Freemasons operate on both sides. Hope that doesn't make you too paranoid.
No. I'm not afraid of Masons, Catholics, Einstein, Christian Scientists, Hippies, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, New Agers (whatever that means), Steve Sibson, or any of the other people you seem to be conflicted about, Sibby. Have you ever thought of getting counseling?
"Have you ever thought of getting counseling?"
Bill, you are the one in a state of denial...an egghead avoiding reality.
(...I am kind of afraid of out-of-tune trumpets... but that's mostly just a musical taste thing. I prefer the Saxophone, actually. Oops, the inventer of the Sax was a •gasp• Freemason! Bite your tongue, BF)
One more time, Sibby, as per founding father Thomas Jefferson:
“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them..."
― Thomas Jefferson
Sorry Steve, you bring this on yourself with your incomprehensible goofiness. Start making sense and stop interrupting conversations with ridiculous bullshit, and I'll lighten up. Otherwise, at least quit whining and take your medicine.
Thomas Jefferson was also an anti-Christian Freemason.
Ezekiel 33
Renewal of Ezekiel’s Call as Watchman
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, 4 then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. 5 Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’
7 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.
Anti-Christian as in irrelevant Christian Church fairytales?
Yes.
Freemason?
I don't think so.
http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/fraternal-organizations
As with Einstein, who wouldn't want to claim him.
But alas, they were "freethinkers". Not freemasons.
p.s. Sibby, that freethinking is a good thing.
You should put down that garbage you read and try it sometime.
So the last paranoid straw for you Sibby is that you behave like you do because you are afraid of God? That's pretty sad, man. I'm just sayin...
Sibby, read Einstein's letter to his friend again. You're making your life a living hell, right here, right now.
Ezekiel is talking about people like YOU.
You are a self fulfilling prophecy.
Snap out of it, brother.
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universeâ€, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind."
Bill,
Freethinking is what Satan wants. Yes, Freemason were freethinkers.
Listen to the trumpet Bill and get out.
Right, Sibby, for heaven's sake, whatever you do, don't think.
Bill, there are thinkers and then there are freethinkers. The difference has to do with morality. Again, the trumpet has sounded, what are you going to do?
What do you want me to do, Steve?
What is the response you would like to hear so you can rest assured you have blown your trumped loudly enough for all here to hear?
By the way, Sibby, do you behave like this when you go to the grocery store or a restaurant? If so, I bet it makes you a really popular guy at the cash register.
How about at work, do you do this dog-and-pony show around the water cooler at the office?
Do you go door to door and ask people if they are free thinkers? And if they say yes, do you jump in their shit?
Worse yet, when you overhear people in conversation and sombody mentions George Bush or Bill Clinton or Albert Einstein, do you interrupt them, tell them that they are talking about people who did Satan's bidding, and when they tell you you're being a pain in the ass, do you quote Ezekiel and tell them you're just sounding the trumpet because if you don't you're afraid God might send you to hell?
Yes. or no, Steve.
Is this how you behave in public?
Bill, looks like you heard the trumpet well, my task is finished.
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Sibby you don't know me very well brother. I don't take marching orders from anyone except my wife. And I couldn't care less about what some poll said about my voting record. I can explain every one of them.
And wasn't I at 50%? Dang! I should have listened better in class............................. :)
In the future God will completely destroy Satan's kingdom, and Satan and his followers will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire in torment, which is God's judgment for them. Satan's greatest weapon to destroy people is ignorance, and monism is his tool to blind men and women to his existence and working.
http://appiusforum.net/monism.html
The God I embrace doesn't torture people, Sibby. I can't get very excited about a Supreme Being who would say "Love me, or I will have you tortured for eternity." Here in America, we lock people up for doing that kind of thing, you know?
But you can believe it, if it floats your boat, dude. That's what the 1st Amendment is all about. But whatever you do, just don't start thinking and acting out that you're God, okay?
(Best argument for dualism I've seen is the one Sibby just presented. If that's who you think God is, the last thing you should do is try to act like him. Monism has nothing to do with egos.)
I suspect all this talk about farm subsidies and Kristi Noem's misplaced priorities won't matter when/if we sinners face that lake of fire. I also suspect that we will not figure out the magic formula for avoiding that lake of fire or whatever else Sibby is protraying as gospel truth here. So we might as well focus on what we can control: law, policy, and legislators like Rep. Noem who don't listen. (By his comments, State Rep. Hoffman at least appears to be listening. Whether he votes right in Pierre this time around remains to be seen... and will of course be watched by all attentive voters and blog readers!)
"But whatever you do, just don’t start thinking and acting out that you’re God"
Bill, that is what you New Agers do. That is how one finds ther Lake of Fire. Monism has really blinded you to the truth.
Cory, sorry, I would like to stay on message. I only wanted to point out that Christian Science is part of the New Age anti-christian movement. And only because Bill used it as a source.
I will let it rest for now.
No, it is not what I do, Steve. I'm not sure you even know what YOU think. For sure you don't know what I think.
I have no interest in shoving my belief system down your throat down your throat, having you tortured, or sending you to hell. Don't be so stupid.
"I don’t take marching orders from anyone except my wife."
Charlie,
I thought you were suppose to represent the voters of your district based on the Republican platform. Thanks for correcting me.
The school of Monism teaches that there is only one reality or thing or substance; everything else is ‘maya’ or illusion. If we call this ‘one thing’ God, then man becomes God since there cannot be God and man (two things or dualism). So in the school of monism, we become God!
http://appiusforum.net/monism.html
[Sorry Cory, once Bill wants to give it a rest, I will too.]
Wrong. The universe is God's expression of himself. Your perception that you are a distinct being, separate from the universe is an illusion. God is all there is, there is nothing else. Any other way of looking at it is a delusion. THAT's what monism is. If you don't believe it, it doesn't make any difference. It is what it is.
In other words, if God is omnipresent, that means everywhere. There isn't any place God isn't or he isn't God.
The problem with your dualist construct, Steve, is that is isn't logical, and it doesn't agree with what we know to be true about reality.
The other problem with your construct is that it assumes humans are inherently bad. This leads to a lot of human suffering at the hands of other human beings. It is an immoral worldview.
Bill,
The idea that we are also god was brought forward by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. When Adam & Eve acted on that, we have what caused the dualism. I don't know how that is not logical. It is foundational to Christianity. Either you follow the one true God, or you follow Satan...you can't do both. Monism puts its followers in the Satan camp, so I blew the trumpet as an act of love.
"The other problem with your construct is that it assumes humans are inherently bad."
So in today's politics we have coveting as the modus operndi. If you are a farmer then you want your urban neighbors to give you subsidies. You want someone else to pay for your food stamps. Selfishness rules the day, and that is not inherently bad?
[There Cory, I just tied the discussion to the subject of the post.]
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." — Genesis 1:27
Hey, it's your favorite book, Sibby.
The only one you believe in.
Don't you read it?
As I said before, the universe is God’s expression of himself. Your perception that you are a distinct being, separate from the universe is an illusion. God is all there is, there is nothing else.
I did NOT say that that we are God. I said God is us. And everything else.
Body, mind, spirit, energy, matter, consciousness, nothing and everything, the angels and the devils, even Sibbys unicorns... all good, all God. Forever and ever, amen.
That's what Monism is. Whoever told you differently didn't understand the concept. Read Einstein. He got it.
So in your world anyone who is a registered Democrat does not matter or count in the extrapolating thesis we smart ones called politicians of the Republican party get to extrapolate when we win?
Not the way the system works according to me friend.
Sorry Sibby; you just totally threw yourself down the river and I am not going to throw you a life saver.