Keeping Business Honest

Industry Groups and Associations Represent Conspiracies

It may come as a surprise to some to learn that business owners and capital investors are evil people--not in any specific or particular sense (as Marxists believe) but in the general sense of universal human depravity shared by all human beings, born and unborn.  This general truth is at the core of the Christian faith, being explicitly declared in Holy Writ, (Romans 5:12-14) and professed in its creeds and confessions (for example, ". . . all mankind descending from him [Adam] by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression."  [Shorter Catechism, Question 16].

Business owners and capital investors share, along with all men, the blight of universal human depravity.  Therefore, it is a reasonable expectation that given half a chance they will take any opportunity to advance their own position, wealth, and well-being at the expense of  fellow men.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Dear XYZ

Posted on Monday, December 2, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

An open letter to black Reformed rappers, in light of the recent dust-up.

Dear XYZ,

I hope you don’t mind receiving a letter like this, coming, as it does, out of the left field bleachers. To begin with a confession of the perfectly obvious, I am not naturally part of that demographic that buys, listens to, or is otherwise conversant in, the work you do. You might say it is not my cup of T. At the same time, I do follow cultural trends widely, and sometimes deeply, and have been aware of your active presence in the Reformed world for some years now. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.

So I want to ask you to think of this letter as the work of an appreciative and affectionate and somewhat distant Dutch uncle . . . although I am not Dutch. I believe you have been called to a very important task, and I want to urge you to honor God in that work. The reason for this letter is that I believe that the importance of your labor is such that it is going to generate a great deal of trouble for you, and I believe that I do know something about handling that, whether we are talking about causes or consequences.

As I observe the work you do, I wanted you to know that there are three things that I am very thankful for, and which I would urge you to guard and protect. There are also four things to be wary of, four traps, four snares.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

December 07

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. —Job 32:8

Devotional:
If it is God that gives special understanding to men to understand the things that pertain to this fleeting life, what is to be said of the Gospel and of true religion? Have we these by nature? Can we purchase them by our own labor? Alas, we must fall far short.

If a man should be a good schoolmaster to teach children, or a good lawyer or physician, or a good merchant in a city or a good laborer in the country; it is the Spirit of God that accomplishes all these things. One man needs to be sharp-witted in one thing more than in another; as sometimes mechanical arts require greater skill than merchandising.

Now then, when we come to the doctrine of the Gospel, there is a wisdom which surmounts all of man's understanding, and is wonderful even to the angels. The very secrets of heaven are contained in the Gospel, for it concerns the knowledge of God in the person of his Son.

Letter From Australia (About State Education)

Getting Value For Money

The problems with NZ government schools are not unique to this country.  A similar pattern can be discerned in Australia.  Here is a piece in The Telegraph by Piers Akerman.

The big error lies in believing money is the sole answer to educational problems.  In the past decade the education budget has increased by 40 per cent but results have declined in real terms across every subject. Australian taxpayers pay $42 billion a year for shocking results.

The Abbott government has been faced with the choice of continuing to fund bad policy and fail our children or trying to help them gain from their schooling. Given that the federal government doesn't own any schools or employ any teachers, the choice seems simple. 

Give the states and territories some guidance on curricula, replace the hideously ideological literacy program, for instance, with the universally accepted and proven phonics method of teaching reading,

Green Energy and Dirty Money

A Good-News Story

As we read the account below, we could barely repress a chuckle.  They say that necessity is the mother of invention and it appears to be true in the UK.  A recession, coupled with a desperate need to restrain wasteful, profligate, debt-driven public spending have forced the government to turn to the private sector to fund much needed infrastructure spending.  At the edge of the dark cloud is a burnished silver lining.

This from the Telegraph:

Breaking Stereotypes

John Piper’s New Poem and Video: “The Calvinist”

Dec 03 2013 9:09 am CT 
Justin Taylor

Calvinism, they say, is making a comeback. But poetry? We rarely hear traditional poems today, apart from rhyming couplets in songs or greeting cards or spoken-word pieces with a beat. So I am thankful to hear and watch this robust, life-giving poem from John Piper—read by Piper with the help of friends Matt Chandler, R. C. Sproul, D. A. Carson, Thabiti Anyabwile, Alistair Begg, and Sinclair Ferguson—showing that Calvinism is not an arcane point of theology but a tough-and-tender approach to all of life before the face of God. You can watch it below or read it here.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

December 06

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. —Romans 14:8

Devotional:
If the account I have heard of the death of your good brother and mine have been the occasion of joy to me, as, indeed, there was good reason for it, you who have known better the whole matter, have, assuredly, far more ample matter for rejoicing, not for that you wished to be deprived of so excellent a companion, on which account both you and I have good ground for regret—all the more that the number of those who in the present day walk constantly in the fear of God is so small and rare, but because of the singular grace which God had conferred upon him, of perseverance in the fear of his name, the faith and patience which he has manifested, and other tokens of true Christianity.

For all that is as a mirror in which we may contemplate the strength wherewith our kind heavenly Father assists his children, and most of all, out of their greatest difficulties. Then, also, we may conclude that his death was indeed happy and blessed, in the face of him and of all his angels.

National Education Charades

Ticking Crocodiles In The Real World

The chattering classes of the Commentariat are presently discombobulated over an OECD report showing that New Zealand's performance is waning in educational matters.  Government schools, it would seem, are a sunset industry.  This from Stuff:

New Zealand's education ranking has fallen from seventh to 18th in science, from 13th to 23rd in maths, and from seventh to 13th in reading, according to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last night.  The figures in the report were based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Just over 4000 15-year-old Kiwi students took part in the assessment, which is done every three years.

These results need to be considered against the backdrop of taxpayer funded lavish largesse being poured out upon government schools in a Noahic deluge over the past ten years. [Sound trumpets . . . ]

Budget 2013 delivers $901 million in the current year and over the next four years for operating initiatives to lift educational achievement at every level of the system – from early childhood, to primary, to secondary, and into training for work, Education Minister Hekia Parata says.  “We are increasing spending on education – for the fifth Budget in a row. The Government’s total investment increases to over $9.7 billion for the 2013/14 financial year.  “New Zealand’s total education investment sits at 7.2 per cent of GDP – well above the OECD average of 5.8 per cent,’’ Ms Parata says. [NZ Government Press Release]

The present government, and a litany of  previous governments, have succumbed to the fallacy that more government spending will generate better educational outcomes.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Rap Tide

Posted on Thursday, November 28, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Magblog

There has been a goodish bit of Internet response to this short video. A number of men were asked for their take on Reformed hip hop artists, and their response was overwhelmingly negative.

In that negative response, there were some fair points — the cult of perpetual immaturity that cool always tends to foster, the need to make a clean break with the rebellion that birthed the genre, the truth that musical forms matter, and so on. But surrounding the decent takeaway points, there was an overall failure to make appropriate distinctions, with the end result that the body of the criticism falls flat. A better and more thoughtful interaction by Russell Moore can be found here, which you probably ought to read if you want my comments below to make any sense.

What is rap for? What are the rules of the genre, and what is being attempted? I would argue that the natural form of rap is that of prophetic denunciation — the jeremiad.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

December 05

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website.

Bible Text:
Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? —John 18:11

Devotional:
"Shall I not drink the cup which my Father hath given to me?" In the same manner we, too, ought to be prepared for enduring the cross. And yet we ought not to listen to fanatics, who tell us that we must not seek remedies for diseases and any other kind of distresses, lest we reject the cup which the heavenly Father presents to us.

Knowing that we must once die (Heb. 9:27), we ought to be prepared for death; but the time of our death being unknown to us, the Lord permits us to defend our life by those aids which he has himself appointed. We must patiently endure diseases, however grievous they may be to our flesh; and though they do not yet appear to be mortal, we ought to seek alleviation of them; only we must be careful not to attempt anything but what is permitted by the Word of God.

In short, provided that this remain always fixed in our hearts, "Let the will of the Lord be done" (Acts 21: 14), when we seek deliverance from the evils which press upon us, we do not fail to drink the cup which the Lord has given us. —Commentaries

---

John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

The Annals of Hard Despotism

Withering on the Vine

We use the term "soft-despotism" to refer to the smothering embrace of the Western nanny state, driven by the demands of perverted consciences, riven by pseudo-guilt and self-righteous pity.  The alternative to soft-despotism is hard-despotism.  China is a nation with a hard-despotic system.  China is attempting to change, we are told, and we are sure there is truth in it.  But the social consequences of decades of hard despotism will take generations to work through and out.

Many of those consequences arise out of China's hard despotic attempt to control its population growth--something which the current leaders are now starting deeply to regret we suspect.  It is a startling lesson in what happens when a culture institutionalises and enforces atheistic rebellion against the Living God.  The curses of God's covenant fall--and they are exacting, hard, and remorseless.  Deep remorse, turning away from Unbelief, returning to the Creator and Redeemer and walking along a new road, His road, are the only ways of genuine escape.  Traditional Chinese pragmatism will not suffice.  The societal damage is too severe.

A recent article in the Telegraph succinctly presents just some aspects of the burgeoning social dislocation and economic disruption facing China as a result of the One-Child Policy.

Christmas Carols

Drumming Glory

The Christmas season is approaching. We always need reminding that the core focus of Christmas for us, His people, is to be worship, with great joy. Here is a rendition of The Little Drummer Boy, using the greatest of musical instruments--the human voice. 

This particular piece is a reminder that worship of the God who is now amongst us clothed in human nature, who is bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh, warmly accepts the worship of children, and that it is the adoration of children which provides us jaded adults with a tutorial in worship. 

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

December 04

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. —Isaiah 40:26

Devotional:
"Lift up your eyes on high." We ought to observe that we are so wicked and ungrateful judges of the divine power, that we often imagine God to be inferior to some feeble man. We are more terrified frequently by the empty mask of a single man than we are strengthened by all the promises of God.

Not in vain, therefore, does the Prophet repeat that God is defrauded of his honor, if his power does not lead us to warm admiration of him; nor does he spend his labor in what is superfluous, for we are so dull and sluggish that we need to be continually aroused and excited.

Men see every day the heavens and the stars; but who is there that thinks about their Author? By nature men are formed in such a manner as to make it evident that they were born to contemplate the heavens, and thus to learn their Author;

Drugs as a Health Issue, Not a Crime

Assume the Position

We reproduce below a piece on a serious problem--the over representation of blacks and hispanics in US jails.  This has led to an unfortunate consequence of police profiling of blacks and hispanics in poor neighbourhoods, which in turn has many deleterious additional unintended consequences.   A major contributor to this vortex of bad consequences is the policy of drug prohibition and criminalisation.

H. David Schuringa is  the president of Crossroad Bible Institute, an international discipleship and advocacy agency for prisoners and their families, with headquarters in the United States.  Crossroad Bible Institute is active in New Zealand prisons providing educational material, Bible studies, tutoring, and other support to prisoners. 

Dr Schuringa wrote the following piece in a US blog:

The Annals of Soft-Despotism

It's Unique, So It's Gotta Be Good

A government which sets forth to care for everybody becomes an inevitable soft-despotic monster.  But the monster is incompetent, bumbling, and stupid.  Irremediably so.  The only solution the monster can proffer to overcome its bumbling failures is to throw millions more of "good money" after bad.  It's only solution is to double down on folly. 

Now this is not to say that private (non-state) enterprise is always efficient.  Far from it.  But private enterprise has an enforcer, a ruthless, take-no-prisoners punisher of business incompetence and failures.  Mr Competition is relentless in punishing and driving the bumbling incompetent out of business.  But the soft-despot has no competitors.  It is a despot after all, protected by law. 

We offer yet another illustration of the follies and self-destructive pathogens of a bumbling  soft-despotic government: the Obamacare website.

Obamacare: 500M Lines of Code, $500M, 60% Complete, No Surprise

by John J. Xenakis  

30 Nov 2013, 9:59 PM

Breitbart

The historic IT disaster known as the Obamacare web site has been of intense interest to me, since I've been a Senior Software Engineer for decades, and I have personally participated in, witnessed, and reported on (as a technology reporter) a number of IT disasters. But even so, the size of the Obamacare web site catastrophe on October 1 still takes my breath away.

When I first heard, shortly after October 1, that there was 500 million lines of code in Healthcare.gov, I quickly rejected that figure, because it's impossible.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

December 03

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way. —Psalm 119:128

Devotional:
Assuredly when we see that the ungodly mock God with such effrontery, at one time rising up audaciously against him, and at another perverting every part of the law, it becomes us to be more inflamed with zeal, and to be the more courageous in maintaining the truth of God. The extreme impiety of our age especially demands of all the faithful that they should exercise themselves in this holy zeal.

Profane men strive to outdo each other in scornfully aspersing the doctrine of salvation, and endeavor to bring God's sacred Word into contempt by their derisive jeers. Others pour forth their blasphemies without intermission. We cannot, therefore, avoid being chargeable with the crime of treacherous indifference, if our hearts are not warmed with zeal, and unless we burn with a holy jealousy.

The Prophet not merely says that he approved of God's law wholly and without exception, but he adds that he hated every way of lying, or every false way. And, undoubtedly, no one subscribes in good earnest to the law of God, but he who rejects all the slanders by which the wicked taint or obscure the purity of sound doctrine. —Commentaries

Copyright © 2013, The Orthodox Presbyterian Church. All Rights Reserved. 

Freedom For the Privileged

Virginian Heresies

Much negative commentary has been issued on the New England Puritan settlements in the seventeenth century.   Most of it is misleading.  Much less negative commentary has issued forth on the English settlements in Virginia.  This is surprising in some respects, but on the other hand, maybe not unexpected.  After all, if one had to compare the two settlements: New England and Virginia, why the latter would be superior in every respect. 

It is true that they were different.  The New England Puritan settlements (and the Quaker settlements in what later became Pennsylvania) were animated by principles of freedom from persecution and oppression.  Virginia's animus, however, was a replication of royal prerogative and aristocratic privilege.

Thanksgiving

G.K. Chesterton on Thanksgiving

Justin Taylor
November 28, 2013

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”—G. K. Chesterton

“The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.”—G. K. Chesterton

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”—G. K. Chesterton

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”—G. K. Chesterton

“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?”—G. K. Chesterton

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

December 02

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. —John 13:8

Devotional:
"Thou shalt never wash my feet." Hitherto Peter's modesty was excusable, though it was not free from blame; but now he errs more grievously, when he has been corrected, and yet does not yield.

And, indeed, it is a common fault that ignorance is closely followed by obstinacy. It is a plausible excuse, no doubt, that the refusal springs from reverence for Christ; but since he does not absolutely obey the command, the very desire of showing his respect for Christ loses its beauty.

The true wisdom of faith, therefore, is to approve and embrace with reverence whatever proceeds from God,

Anti-Human

Reactionary Greenist Nonsense

Readers of Contra Celsum will know that we do not have much respect for Greenism.  One reason is its persistent anti-intellectual stance.  A second is its admixture of reactionary luddite philosophy, mixed with idolatrous nature worship.  A third is its serial ignorance of economics, trade, and markets.  It's not just that Greens tend to despise these things, it's that they appear to have a profound ignorance of them and how they operate.  

Finally, Greenism has a pathological hatred of wealth and economic prosperity, for in the Greenist world view, economic prosperity amounts to destruction of the environment.  But it is always "other people's prosperity" that Greenism is fixated upon rejecting.  Greenism appears satisfied with economic deprivation and poverty as a morally superior position to a modern, industrial economy. 

Whilst it is true that Greens sometimes talk about "green jobs" they struggle to define precisely what a "green job" is, let alone how such "jobs" might actually come into being and be perpetuated.  So, their reflex is always causation by government.  It is the state which must promote, subsidise and protect these "green jobs" if they are to exist at all.  But what this demonstrates is a persistent despite toward humanity and human endeavour, enterprise, creativity, and ingenuity.  The Greenist version of economic development always proceeds by force and compulsion.

In a nutshell, Greenism shows every sign of hating the human race.  It's environmental "activism" appears more driven by collective self-loathing of the human species, rather than genuine, meaningful ecological protection. As such, Greenism is anti-Christian. 

Below is Rodney Hide's take on the NZ Greens.  There is a lot of truth in his telling.

The Long Dark of Moria

EU: Belgium introduces death penalty without trial for minors. It is called “euthanasia”.

Posted on | November 28, 2013 

By J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

A day of shame at the Belgian Senate: a country abandons civilization.

The culture of death, which is bound to lead to the self-destruction of any society that adopts it, is making great strides in Europe. The latest development is that the Belgian Senate has voted in favour of a new bill that extends the legalisation of “euthanasia” to minors. There is no lower age limit, nor is it a requirement for the victims of those so-called “mercy-killings” to have asked for such “mercy”.

Instead, the basis for killing these children is the choice they hypothetically would make if they only understood their condition. In reality, however, they will be killed either at the request of their parents, or may be even (for example if the parents are unavailable, or if they unable or unwilling to make such a request) at the initiative of a public administrative body. In other words, this is a death penalty without trial, without criminal charges, without a right to defence.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 30

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. —Psalm 51:13

Devotional:
"I will teach transgressors thy ways." Here he speaks of the gratitude which he would feel should God answer his prayer and engages to show it by exerting himself in effecting the conversion of others by his example.

Those who have been mercifully recovered from their falls will feel inflamed by the common law of charity to extend a helping hand to their brethren;

Prophetic Bombers

Anglican Church Definitively Condemned 

It seems inevitable that severe disruption of some kind, if not a split, is going to occur in the Anglican church.  This ought not discourage us on the face of it, for not all separations and splits are bad.  The call to "come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing" (II Corinthians 6:17) remains, reminding us that it is the Living God Who is sovereign and His Word rules over churches, not the reverse.

What is discouraging is the extent of judicial blindness now manifest in the Anglican church.  The Telegraph recently presented the thinking of bishops via a report, compiled by a panel of bishops, and  issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York over the issue of homosexuality.  As is so often the case in such matters it is the childish, asinine reasoning that accompanies the attempt to justify what is wicked that reveals so much about the spiritual condition of the denomination.  What is the recommendation of the report?

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Gravy of Grace and Gratitude

Posted on Tuesday, November 26, 2013  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

If you like to eat what you like to eat, this means that you are a human being. If you are morally indignant about the food choices of others, this means you are well on the way to becoming a food leftist.

Leftism is that impulse that wants to establish coercion and call it community. Apply the coercive impulse to food and farming choices, and you have the food leftist.

And it begins with the indignation. Once the indignation is established, it becomes possible to draw on a hidden premise that too many Americans share — that sins should be crimes — and move from that position to the idea that made up sins should be made into real crimes.

When the food regulators change their minds, and start cracking down on this product instead of that product, this is simply part of the way authoritarian regimes operate.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 29

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. —II Timothy 3:14, 15

Devotional:
Timothy, even from his childhood, had learned the holy Scripture. By this he means that Timothy had much more advantage than if he had but recently been brought to the faith from heathendom. True it is that his father was a heathen, but God of his gracious goodness made him follow the faith of his mother and his grandmother. And therefore he had been faithfully brought up, and instructed in the doctrine of God, and in true religion, even from his mother's breast.

For if a man be sixty years old, being already old and frail for the knowledge of the Gospel, still he must strive with himself, seeing he has erred all his life long, to make up for that which he has lost.

Unclothed Emperor

Poor Qualifications Exposed

The education establishment, which is made up of educrats, principals, many teachers, teacher unions and politicians, have long celebrated the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) testing system in New Zealand secondary schools.  Recently, however, tertiary institutions provided anecdotal and experiential testimony that our official education system is failing to prepare students for study at universities, colleges, and other tertiary institutions.  The report was prepared by the Tertiary Education Commission--a government quango.

According to the NZ Listener:

A confidential Tertiary Education Commission report reveals profound and widespread concerns about the way NCEA prepares students for further study. It paints a picture of substandard mathematics and science education, NCEA students coming unstuck in their first year at university and tertiary providers scrambling to come up with their own diagnostic tests and remedial courses. The document is a summary of formal reports from 15 tertiary institutions – universities and polytechnics – that offer engineering courses.

How does the problem manifest?

Trust, But Verify

Reclaiming Vital Liberties

Blogger Patterico has been consistently has been critical of Snowden leaks.  Like many, he sees it as undermining the government which necessarily has to conduct some activities in secret.  Recent revelations, however, find him rethinking.

Snowden Document Reveals The Government Is Tracking Individuals’ Online Activities for the Explicit Purpose of Embarrassing Them

Filed under: General — 

Patterico @ 7:30 am

The latest Edward Snowden document shows the government tracking online activities of people in order to discredit them with charges of hypocrisy for viewing porn and such. But it’s OK, nothing to worry about . . . they’re all Muslims:

The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility, reputation and authority.

The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger.”

It doesn’t take a genius to see how a brass knuckles politician might drool over access to information that would embarrass and destroy their critics and political opponents.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

November 28

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. —Zechariah 4:6

Devotional:
Here we are reminded that if we desire to become proficient in the mysteries of God, we must not arrogate anything to ourselves; for here the Prophet honestly confesses his own want of knowledge. And let us not at this day be ashamed to lie down at God's feet, that he may teach us as little children; for whoever desires to be God's disciple must necessarily be conscious of his own folly, that is, he must come free from a conceit of his own wisdom, and be willing to be taught by God.

The angel bears witness that the power of God alone is sufficient to preserve the Church and there is no need of other helps. For he sets the Spirit of God in opposition to all earthly aids; and thus he proves that God borrows no help for the preservation of the Church, because he abounds in all blessings to enrich it.

Uneasy and Sleepless

 The Foment Of Fairness

We have been working through David Fischer's Fairness and Freedom, which claims to be a "history of two open societies--New Zealand and the United States".  It represents a history of the idea of freedom and liberty, as developed in the two respective countries.  [David Fischer, Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies, New Zealand and the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).]

In a nutshell, the thesis is that the United States has been built upon and moulded around the idea of freedom as liberty from state oppression, whilst New Zealand has been built upon the idea of freedom as fairness throughout society.  The brush strokes of the thesis are necessarily broad and all-encompassing.  Critics would allege that this necessarily leads to over-simplification.  However, wrinkles aside, the basic thesis has enough correspondence with reality to warrant consideration.

Letter From Australia (About Resuming Normal Service)

The Great Climate Grind

Tim Blair
The Daily Telegraph
November 25, 2013

AUSTRALIAN pride is restored. This is no small accomplishment, considering the depths to which we sank in 2009, when prime minister Kevin Rudd offered this wince-making speech to that year's United Nations climate conference in Denmark:

"Before I left Australia, I was presented with a book of handwritten letters from a group of six-year-olds. One of the letters is from Gracie. Gracie is six. 'Hi,' she wrote. 'My name is Gracie. How old are you?' Gracie continues, 'I am writing to you because I want you all to be strong in Copenhagen. Please listen to us as it is our future.' I fear that at this conference, we are on the verge of letting little Gracie down."

We were a different country back then, outsourcing economic policy to babies and actually admitting it to the world. Happily, things have changed. For this year's UN climatefest in Warsaw, Poland, Tony Abbott's government didn't even bother to send the environment minister, much less the Prime Minister and his pre-teen fan mail.

Instead we sent some delegates who quite properly treated the whole exercise as a lark, much to the consternation of Gaia's little Gracies.