Whew! Glad That’s Over

Posted on November 4, 2010 by ehurst

Elections in the US (no doubt other places) are such a farce, their only value is in the entertainment factor.

The same party won this time which won last time: Bigger Government Corporate Owned War Party. This party has two different uniforms, but it’s the same team. They do their best to persuade us there is some real difference, but it’s all about the money and the power. No one truly committed to truth and humanity cares much about money, and certainly wants no power over others. Merely entering your name on the ballot is a moral disqualification for any position.

As I noted elsewhere, the only thing in this world which will go out of it is people — some aspect of human consciousness will outlast this plane of existence. For Christians the proper phrase is “life after death.” What it means is the only thing in this world worth any real time and effort is people. All the rest is mere instrumentality. The madness of our world stands that on its head, expending people for something else. All that folderol about accomplishments and greatness is at best a very bad misreading of human need. You cannot approach any part of high achievement without senseless bloodshed, because it invariably means stepping on someone who needs something different.

This plane of existence is sorely broken. I maintain it cannot be fixed. Our only hope is riding out the storm and finding another plane of existence. Sanity is not getting entangled here, but reaching steadily for what comes after. In the process, you cannot avoid letting others see some of the affects of that other-worldly focus. How they respond is their own concern, but we cannot let anything deter us. We may see tactical and strategic need for changing our tack, but the goal does not move.

Sanity means full awareness of time, but not being ruled by it. That is, not allowing ourselves to be led into an artificial frame of reference with time as a commodity, something to be measured precisely and spent only reluctantly. Time will pass regardless of your struggle to meter and control its flow. And the one thing you cannot ever guarantee is that there will even be a next moment. The ancients did not schedule things; they viewed time as a matter of things coming to ripeness. What you expected didn’t always happen, but you seized what was before you until it ran its course. There was no pretense of steering events, but responding appropriately in the context. Our Western perception of time is utterly insane, a massive mythology.

The goal beyond is not accomplishing something. We do not become by our accomplishments. It is not a matter of being, for the simple reason none of can possibly know the essence of anything, only manifestations. The concept of essence is, at best, symbolic. Nor is it really so much a matter of doing, since we inevitably fail at various points. No, it’s a matter of desire. All we can claim as our own is our commitments. Even that is a matter of drilling down through the insanity of this world’s frame of reference, and seeing what our commitments demand of us regardless of fashion, reason and any external human wisdom. Something in the very nature of the cosmos calls us to something higher, something beyond, and it is this we need to seek within ourselves. There is a part of us which connects to that cosmic truth.

And you will see quickly nothing in our elections run in that direction. Lots of noise, and activity and sweat, and vast pools of resources — all wasted on fantasy. Even fantasy can serve a good purpose if it illustrates something which cannot be put in words, but this is empty fantasy, pointing only to what cannot ever be. Does anyone besides a few historians remember, say, Millard Fillmore? He worked so very hard and basically stumbled into the Presidency. The pinnacle of power? He’s all but forgotten. How long before the current crop of rich and powerful become mere footnotes? This election was of no importance at all; just another mile marker on the way to destruction. The big names will soon be less than footnotes, just as the big names in dead empires past.

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Holy Ghost Christian Mystic

Posted on November 3, 2010 by ehurst

I’m a Christian Mystic. That’s not so much about what I believe as how I derive my beliefs. I take the mystical path of receiving a direct communion with God Himself, the light of revelation and power to act in a place roughly equivalent to the subconscious mind. The brain cannot handle the Ultimate Truth of God, so some other faculty has to do the job. It’s not logical, it’s utterly personal between God and me. I maintain He wants it that way.

But if I didn’t tell you I was a mystic, you’d probably figure from being around me I was simply a generic evangelical Christian. Okay, maybe not so generic, because I’m also a Bible thumper. I wear t-shirts emblazoned with variations on the theme of “REPENT AMERICA!” And I can get down with the Pentecostals, shouting and dancing. I can also get down like a Pentecostal with the Catholics, Orthodox and other liturgical worship scenes, even if I am not too familiar with their official terminology.

Most of them welcome my ardor for the gospel and willingness to do just about any crazy thing they can dream up. That is, until they realize I can’t be made to fit their structure. I can’t make myself do it, either. I’ve been invited to move on several times. So I gave up on them. But I didn’t give up on the message of God and the heavy calling He has placed on me. My Holy Ghost Mysticism drives them nuts. I reject all human molds and don’t want to see humans controlling humans. All organizational structure is human; not a single one is ordained by God as the one right way. All are simply ways we organize, and some are better than others, but they all arise from the human mind. They don’t come down from Heaven. I don’t pretend to tell anyone how they should organize what God calls them to do, but if you ask, I’ll share my way of it. And if we can’t cooperate I won’t talk bad about you for that, at least. So far, all of them are unable to cooperate with my calling; their loss.

What’s left for me is the Internet right now. Aside from a small handful of folks who worship with me in my home, and one or two here and there who sit down for a Bible study with me, my ministry is not geographically located. My congregation is out here on the Web. As you might expect, I spend a lot of electrons here talking about the ways of doing computers and the Internet. That’s just the means, the primary setting in which I operate. That may change any day now, but for now, this is my parish.

I’m not a preacher or pastor, but an elder; I teach and organize a way of understanding God. I’m also a prophet. I make the claim: When I pray, things happen. My prophetic outreach is to America for her coming destruction under God’s wrath, and Western Civilization in general. The nice thing about working the Internet is I am forbidden to advertise and drag my wagon of toys into your living room. Instead, I simply post my thoughts in a couple of places and allow the Spirit of God to draw whom He will.

I don’t pretend to limit how you can discuss Him with me, nor even any other topic. Okay, I do delete comments which strike me as spam or pointlessly hostile, but that’s just an organizational procedure. For the most part, anyone is welcome, including Wiccans, pagans, atheists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus… what have you. You might be surprised at what we have in common. Nor will I turn you into a project and stalk you around the Net until I can talk you into being a Jesus Freak like me. Changing you is above my pay grade; God handles that business. I’m just one of His servants, and I’m quite comfortable with just about anybody He sends me, and just about any place He sends me. If you like, we can be friends regardless of your choices.

C’mon in; have a seat. Cup of decaf or some herbal tea? I’m a Holy Ghost Christian Mystic.

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Herding Us into Urban Death

Posted on November 2, 2010 by ehurst

A few years ago I noted my displeasure with urban living. That is not to say I hate going downtown. I’m drawn by the same thing which draws everyone else. I’ll never be so spiritual I don’t suffer temptations. But it is a temptation for something which is not good, not good for anyone.

Yet this is precisely what TPTB want for us. Not simply the radical greens who want to preserve all the open spaces for their elitist enjoyment of nature, but the very soul of Satan and his destruction of mankind demands we be herded into urban sardine cans. There is something in it to sucker just about every human living, and I’m sure you can cite your own list of perceived benefits.

I’ve seen cities done right, and it’s rare to find it here in America. In Europe, for example, there are some examples where a city ought to be, working to offer what few genuine benefits urban density can. The primary one is concentration of markets for certain goods. Consider a sliding scale of goods, some used daily, some purchased more rarely. A city permits a market density which encourages the investment in producing more rarely purchased items which may nonetheless make life better (think: durable goods). The density of labor markets encourages specialization and efficiency, and allows some to extend their rare talents. None of these things are inherently evil, but we must admit it also encourages vice at the same time.

People who remain together in a social structure for any length of time develop traditions and a culture of ideals. In God’s plans for fallen mankind, culture inhibits some vices due to a legacy of wisdom built up over generations. It also gives people something to live for, something intangible which justifies some of the tangibles. Having an identity brings meaning to human existence. Mixing of societies naturally causes friction, but also a certain drift in adopting new elements in culture. Profligate mixing of too many at once means certain death of culture.

Here in America our only identity is a lack of one. We destroyed the indigenous culture and brought nothing useful to replace it. Instead, we have careered down the slope of decadence by stripping away what little good may have been available from each cultural invasion and keeping only the worst. We do have some select islands of decent cultural background here and there, but nothing which gives our nation an identity. Indeed, we do not at all meet the definition of “nation.” Instead, we have this thin veneer of materialism with every possible variation of greed and hedonism possible. Our cities are not alive with culture, but are places where cultures go to die, sinking in to depravity.

This nasty situation is no accident. It may not have a human intelligence driving it, but it certainly has a demonic one. We build our cities in the worst possible places, taking up valuable agricultural space because we value only the dollar price, not alternative uses. Alternatively, we build them in places where they are utterly unsustainable.

By no means am I any shade of green, but it doesn’t take a false Earth Mother religion to see we have been abysmally stupid in our heedless development and profligate waste of resources. Human life is most sustainable when thinly scattered in small clumps. Greens want to herd people more tightly into cities, when that is the worst possible idea. Discarding thousands of years of human history and wisdom from ancient times, we have created some artificial notions of what constitutes human good, and are suddenly at the end of all the worst Western Civilization could possibly produce.

We lack the cultural basis for acting wisely when decisions are made, so people naturally follow their shallow, hedonistic and greedy inclinations in just about every facet of our national life. What few transcendent notions we claim are devoid of life because there is nothing behind them. They were stolen as mere baubles from better cultures, without keeping the meaning of them. So now we find ourselves in a situation where the only way to fix things is destroy it all and let it rest awhile, then restarting on a much saner basis.

What chances would you give of that happening? America is doomed. When the necessities of life start running out, there will be riots and eventually wars as people demand what they cannot have. We are so mighty against other nations, but will soon be destroyed from within. Our own governments at every level are no wiser than the fools hiding in the alley injecting poisons in themselves for a passing empty euphoria. This is America.

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Open Source Religion

Posted on November 1, 2010 by ehurst

I’m currently following a discussion on a private list which addresses the issue of churches and Open Source software. For those most deeply involved in Open Source development, it’s almost a religion. They frankly accuse churches of wasting God’s blessings buying commercial operating systems and expensive software, when there is so much good which is free (no money) and free (without so many legal encumbrances via licensing).

I can’t see making it a test of faith, as it were. Yes, I agree it is surely more consistent with the spirit of the Bible, but most church folks don’t see it that way. For them to fork over to buy the church the latest and greatest expensive stuff is simply honoring God. For most of them, it is simply the way things get done. These are the same folks who mistakenly believe standard business practices are the right way to organize religious activities.

Obviously I have a problem with that last item. And while I consider myself somewhat a part of what the emergent movement is doing, I don’t believe the way they seem to be embracing Mac is so much a better choice. I can handle Mac, but I don’t feel moved by God to use one, so I’m not praying for one. I certainly can’t afford to buy one. And I most certainly feel the company behind it is even less moral than Microsoft, which is pretty bad.

But too many Linux folks are just as snotty and elitist in their own way. Linux will cease being a mere hobby, and be taken seriously by ordinary users when developers across the spectrum of Open Source projects start taking those users more seriously. Despite any claims to the contrary, the developers of most major projects used in Linux have no clue, nor interest, in what the average computer user wants and needs.

So there is no one really on the moral high ground. You simply have to choose what makes the most sense to you.

However, when it comes to religion itself, I am all for Open Source. That is, we need to see more religion which reflects openness. Ever hear of the seminal argument for Open Source software titled “Cathedral and Bazaar”? The symbolism is churches are closed up, proprietary, restrictive, top-down, etc., while the open bazaar is more free-wheeling, run from the street level. I can recall the very best years of ministry in my life were those spent working in the military chapel, particularly in Europe. Americans often found themselves emotionally orphaned by moving to Europe, and their religion was no different. Without all the proprietary systems here in the US — discrete denominational structures and houses of worship — they either had to build their own island of comfort of find peace in the more generic Protestant or Catholic services in the chapel.

There were a surprising number of English speaking Baptist churches near military bases, and here and there some other brands, but most folks simply took the path of least resistance and it worked just fine. That is, they got involved in whatever local chapel service was most tolerable. Since it was generic, it served to reset their focus on common elements of Christianity, which never hurt anyone serving the Lord. Frankly, I miss that atmosphere. It remains a high point in my Christian service career.

It was Open Source religion. Everything was fully out in the open, no secrets, no barriers, no one building a little kingdom around their peculiar brand of teaching. There was no way to leverage a captive audience. People sought common ground and there was plenty of it. The chaplains did what regulations required of them, but knew better than trying to steer too tightly their active lay leaders. It was run from the bottom in that it was “our” show. It was up to us to determine what God required of us, and how much. No one was criticized for giving too little of themselves, since the military was all-consuming in the first place. Rank in uniform meant nothing most of the time, where a mere sergeant was teaching and leading colonels and generals. Leadership was not imposed, as the whole thing was voluntary, and the only criteria was what seemed to work best. Anyone could suggest anything they liked and it was taken seriously.

The problem with Linux is that it could be like that, and too often is not. The source code is open, but input in the design is restricted to the elite coders and most enthusiastic fans which happen to feed back into the plans the developers already had. Those who simply want something they can use seldom get it, and their voice isn’t heard.

I suppose it’s not always like that on every Open Source project, nor is my experience at the AFCENT NATO Chapel necessarily representative of things today. But at least once I have tasted what it was like. It’s the way church was meant to be.

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Individual Declaration of Independence

Posted on October 31, 2010 by ehurst

I frequently note here how pointless it is to be an activist. Even if you kill off the entire global elite ruling class and all their minions and lackeys in your government, new ones will rise to take their place. In every 100 people born at random throughout the world, at least three of them will be psychopaths. Of all the psychopaths born, some few will always be intelligent enough to rise in power.

Nobody else wants political power, so only psychopaths ever rule. Good people struggle to avoid it, but forcing too much authority on anyone may turn them into a psychopath. It requires a certain mental instability to want power, and ruling makes you unstable.

The vast majority of folks will demand a ruler, a protector, someone who will relieve them of the stress of making decisions in troubled times. They are shirkers. Sure, they’ll do the most demanding work you can imagine, as long as the blame for some aspect of the whole thing really falls on someone else. Thus, we refer to the majority as sheeple. They aren’t psychopaths, but they aren’t too stable and secure.

At the far other end of the scale are the few sane people. The best people on this planet are those who manage to avoid ruling, and avoid being ruled. A critical element in Christian Mysticism is that ability to stay disengaged. It’s not avoiding responsibility, because sanity itself demands you realize you are messed up at birth, and it only gets worse after that. Some of it you might write off as the influence of a bad environment, but at some point you can’t blame others for what you do because you really are free to leave all that behind. You may not have the power to change all the damage inside yourself, but you don’t have to let it rule you.

Nothing I offer in my feeble attempts here to awaken your consciousness of the path of sanity will appeal to the masses. And what the psychopaths can’t use to their advantage they try to shut down. But I’m too small of a target, so even the good folks running WordPress — who tend to respond positively to The Powers That Be (psychopaths) — haven’t noticed me much yet. And aside from my piddling efforts to offer some possible solutions to minor computer technology issues, most of my postings draw very little traffic. That is as it should be.

Those of us who truly embrace the sanity of Christian Mysticism are actually the greatest threat to the psychopaths, and most sheeple won’t like us for upsetting their applecart, either. But they are all too busy with other things, so we get away with talking about it. We are the ultimate weapon to destroy the system, insofar as God plans to use us for that purpose. The greatest threat to government is to not need it.

No, I don’t suggest you should avoid using what government offers, or avoid any interaction with government. Those may be good things, but the best way to destroy a falsehood is show it false. In your daily existence, your complete and utter sanity, your serenity in the face of all the insanity and fear is destructive to the system. Not being herded is how we do it.

Let’s declare our individual independence. We have no need for activism because we don’t need what government does. We are the ones who truly need no governing from this plane. We are ruled from above, and God’s authority always trumps all authority on earth combined. We depend on God, and can’t wait to be with Him face to face. Whatever goes on around us is just one more excuse to show it’s madness by not getting involved.

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On the Latest Bomb Hoaxes

Posted on October 30, 2010 by ehurst

To distract us from the impending banking and mortgage implosion, Western governments have served up a new bogus threat so the news media will have something to scream about.

It was reported some improvised devices, modified toner cartridges and such, were fitted as remote detonation bombs and placed on airplanes. One ended up in the UK, and another was caught before it could head to the US.

Then there were reports they were fakes. Then they were reported again as genuine, containing PETN (a rather modern explosive material), and something which would work like a cell-phone to be activated by an incoming call. It doesn’t matter.

It’s not that I’m blind to how so many people could have gotten hurt. But it would be no different from the Lockerbie Air Disaster. That is, whether the bomb was real or not, it is 100% certain it was put there by someone paid by either the CIA, MI6 or Mossad. The Lockerbie business was a CIA bombing to prevent some agents being reported on their drug dealing. Some DEA agents were on that flight, carrying concrete evidence of CIA agents involved in quite a substantial drug trade. When the remnants of the plane struck the ground in Scotland, the CIA agents were there scooping up real evidence and planting fake evidence. That dude from Libya was a patsy.

And there is not a single active Islamic terrorist, or any other terrorist based in the Middle East, who isn’t somehow a direct product of those same three espionage services. So even is some Ahmad Radical planted a very real improvised bomb on those planes, it still comes back to fake scare tactics designed to keep our attention on something which is not nearly so dangerous as the single greatest threat to all mankind on this earth — that being those same three services and the governments behind them, working together.

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Controlled Opposition

Posted on October 29, 2010 by ehurst

It’s an established label: “controlled opposition.” While not exactly the old Hegelian Dialectic, it is equally sinister. How can you tell when one of your favorite sources of news and commentary is actually a fake? How do you know when someone is trying to play you for a sucker to keep you in line with the program of TPTB?

It’s more than simply how they present things. Drama, hyperbole, and a flaky presentation are nothing more than ways of entertaining you. Pay attention to the content. Some of the most stable and respectable people are subtly inserting biases to make a fool of you.

I’ve already noted how Republicans and Democrats are two edges of the same big government sword. It won’t matter which way you get sliced, your life will be diced up and fed to the Beast. There are hundreds of little side shows by various news sources, each with their own peculiar flavor, all defying easy classification. Each of them also exhibits a singular flaw which marks them not as simply misguided on some issues, but a plant, a hired liar to keep you in line.

The rabble rousing of Alex Jones, for example, is to sucker the underground patriot freedom movement. In the end, he defends Israel, our real national government and our biggest enemy at the same time. So you can easily see how he seeks to contain the argument to things which aren’t real threats to anyone. Pay no attention to the idiot behind that microphone, nor any other blanket supporter of Israel.

Max Keiser yells about the evil greedy bankers of Wall Street, then talks about how they also just happen to ignore global warming. So Keiser is a warmist propaganda liar. Entertaining he may be, and the image of sponsorship by Russia makes it seem somehow respectable mainstream opposition to our government — who doesn’t see the evil in the current administration? But to support global warming shows not simply poor judgment, but willful manipulation. A similar link discounts Blacklisted News and Citizens for Legitimate Government.

Besides, I note a great many sites serving as the voice of controlled opposition always support some filthy immorality or another. Not just selling sexual perversion, but any attempt to draw the eye through sexual attraction. And while sexual immorality is a major marker, there are all sorts of subtle signals in the advertising which marks a site as dependent on sin: fear, greed, anger, etc. There are a host of issues which should serve to mark someone as questionable. Not in the sense they can’t tell the truth; even Satan uses truth as a weapon in his lies. It’s how the truth is shaded, packaged, and what comes with it.

You don’t have to fully embrace the 9-11 Truther movement realize there are valid questions about the official story, which story is presented by the same people who have lied to us every time it suits their agenda to maintain oppressive control. But when someone attacks any such valid questions, they mark themselves as a shill, such as Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. Everything else they say and do is suspect. And we should by now see even on a baldly rational basis Climate Change Science is not science, but pure propaganda politics, and the Carbon Trading market is just another scam. There are other signals you can recognize as the marks of controlled opposition.

I don’t have a problem with people promoting other philosophical assumptions or religions so long as they don’t become an excuse for some political agenda. Zionism is politics with a religious fervor. Feel-good globalism is a cover for tyranny, because there is no chance they will embrace God’s ideals for government. They are essentially socialist-communist liars seeking total control over every detail of your existence. But they are close allies with the fascist faux capitalists who want money to control government without getting their hands dirty. The question is not what flavor of government, but government itself. When they say any form of the word “govern” it always means tyranny.

God says no one has any business managing any part of your daily life who isn’t related by blood or covenant. A constitution is not a covenant, but a social contract. It is devoid of life and meaning, and is always a mere excuse to take things from people, just as with any contract. Oddly, God often holds people accountable to constitutions they swear “before God” when they meant the whole time to ignore it. Still, a covenant is a matter of persons, personal relations committing themselves to each other’s welfare in a necessarily open-ended fashion. It implies one will do whatever they have power to do in fulfilling a very personal commitment. No government in this world operates on those terms.

However, if our social order assumed family controls and extended family structures, we would have something God had known all along would be the the best way to run the world. His Laws and commandments always presuppose such a social structure, and every government is required to build on that. I note significantly Jesus pointed out how “family” need not be blood kin, but that spiritual kinship trumps it. What matters is how things get done, as if it were a traditional shared DNA group.

Any story sold by any public crier in the square competing for attention must align with the story God tells. Anything which detracts from the family primacy and solidarity is automatically a lie of Satan. The thing which binds together all those lying controlled opposition folks is an attack on God’s divine order. Being deceived about spiritual matters we expect, but not when it comes to the mundane mechanics of how to run this world. Nor should we expect to define a precise list of do and don’t requirements, because despite appearances to our perverted Western minds, God didn’t communicate that way.

God’s revelation to us cannot possibly be rendered in terms of mere knowledge, logic, nor even good wisdom. It is a living, breathing interaction with a Person. The mystic places the mind at the service of the spirit-Spirit union, where God speaks to the mind, commanding it via the will. When something indefinable within us balks at logic, and it does not arise from any human lust, we must take that as the voice of God. It remains for our minds to organize how to obey.

Writers and speakers who tend to approach God’s justice are worthy of a reading eye and listening ear. Those who simply sound like it up to that crucial moment of departure are not necessarily paid liars, since the world is filled with useful idiots serving Satan unknowingly. Rather, you know you can’t trust them, since whether they are idiots of willful liars makes little difference in their message.

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Don’t Be Fooled by False Justice

Posted on October 27, 2010 by ehurst

Don’t be a fool. Justin Raimondo notes we once had a powerful antiwar movement, but it was fake. It was a partisan scam, because now that Obama is in office, you don’t hear a peep about the same wars being expanded, and new ones planned. We once had a powerful conservative movement, but they kept promoting and electing empty suits who not only failed to keep their promises, but did worse than those they demagogued. In other words, our system is so utterly broken it seems precious few actually realize it.

You think there was vote fraud to put Bush Jr. in office? Yes, and it’s now being used to keep Obama in office. Go ahead and research electronic votes being reset in recent news articles. Then let me tell you again: Don’t be a fool. The system has no intention of doing the right thing. Ever.

The only justice you can actually get is over things you control. As a professional historian and former teacher of History, I can tell you straight up the US Constitution was meant to fail. It was designed with lots of loopholes so the plutocrats could pervert it. The Constitution is not about justice, but control. The so-called Federalist Papers were cynical lying propaganda, and the authors knew it. It was meant to be a vehicle for suckering an entire nation into believing the lies even while the plutocrats gained ever more control. It has served that purpose well.

Think the Founding Fathers were fine men? Most of them were frauds. Here’s an example: Shays’ Rebellion. In essence, the system invited corruption. Land speculators bought rights to properties they never ever saw. The laws protected them, because the folks in control were part of the game. Speculators sold the properties under terms they knew would not be repaid most of the time. It was set up intentionally to milk the buyers for all the speculators could get from them, then repossess the property to sell to another sucker. The judges carefully appointed by the same class of tyrants were going along with it, so the folks on the losing end became violent. The deck was stacked against them, and they formed a rebellion. It was mostly just; the only justice they could get. Washington led troops against them knowing it was all a fraud. He was a major figure among the frauds; there were precious few heroes.

These men were all moved by the same Classical Western cultural assumptions which produced the Talmud Jesus called “traditions of men” — an excuse to defraud, rob and oppress the lower classes. When we speak of the Pharisees, we refer to Hellenism, which is simply Classical Greek philosophy, the heritage of Aristotle. Christian Mysticism is a conscious rejection of that brand of false epistemology. We embrace the ancient mysticism woven into the very warp and woof of biblical society. Yep, Aristotle will help you well with things you can see and touch, the mere mechanics, but won’t give you a clue about the moral order of Creation. You need the mystical epistemology of the Bible.

So if you want any justice, it requires you make it yourself. Not by taking up arms and overthrowing the current ruling regime; the very nature of such a thing would simply allow some other tyrant class to gain control. You and I doing justice will refuse to do what it takes to gain such control, because justice by it’s very nature — that moral order of Creation — means you don’t permit such control. You don’t permit concentrations of wealth and power, because that becomes the double-edged sword of injustice.

The Laws of God are written into the very fabric of the Cosmos. Defy them and all Hell breaks loose, though it does take awhile. God does not operate on our time scale. He doesn’t always grant you a tomorrow, only right now. Do justice in your own life, in your own household. That is the only place God intended you to exercise authority of that sort. Don’t have leverage to keep government out of your life? Stay the course; do justice and let God handle the things not in your hands. Just make sure you do what you know the Spirit requires of you for justice.

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Tension Rising

Posted on October 26, 2010 by ehurst

So we now have financial outfits suing the banks to take back those fraudulent mortgage investments. And government offices on several levels are investigating them for fraud and dodging taxes. And MERS could be shut down and bankrupt any day now.

The dollar is about to plummet in value, but you won’t be able to get many of them anyway, since the biggest banks are actually insolvent already. It’s just a matter of time when it becomes painfully obvious.

We sent more ships to the waters off Iran, so that’s heating up again. Our encroachments in Pakistan are going to increase in every measure. And those we don’t sent troops and planes after we make war in other ways, such as our posturing with China.

And we have this crazy nonsense about flu vaccines again, only worse. The major food conglomerates are making food ever more poisonous, and suing anybody who offers the real thing. And the government is helping them poison us. And police everywhere are becoming ever more outrageous in their thuggery. And we have a major military command on our own soil asking for a division sized unit of soldiers to deploy against the citizens of the US.

On and on it goes. Nothing anyone can do will fix any of this. It will get steadily worse. You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

The only reason we don’t riot like the French or Italians is because we don’t care. We’re too scared. For some, it’s too late already; there is nothing left to save and no easy targets to attack. But we have an entire generation raised on entitlements and casual violence, and I wonder when they will explode. You and I will be the target. They won’t go after the government figures who are to blame, the big corporation fat cats, and others. No, they will devour their own kind.

For Christian Mystics like myself, we are about to get a chance to test all our silly blather. Does this world really not matter to us? Can we just leave it behind and let it go? We are about to find out. The Saints of God will tribulate.

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FreeBSD 8.1 Test Drive

Posted on October 25, 2010 by ehurst

I decided long ago, of all the various Open Source licenses, I prefer the BSD License. It’s the most free, and typical of my philosophical assumptions. With lots of experience playing around on FreeBSD, I was somewhat brokenhearted during the past two years or so when I couldn’t get it to work. It was either a rash of broken ports, with one or more of the packages I use most always out of whack. Or, it was something in the system which refused to work with my hardware.

Recently I decided to remove the Radeon HD 4350 and run the onboard nVidia GeForce 6100. Lots of things just did not quite work for me with that Radeon card.

Last night I installed 8.1 for i386 on my machine, and everything worked. That is, except the bundled X.org ‘nv’ driver, but it wasn’t hard to install the proprietary version, since nVidia and FreeBSD cooperate on the packaging. Without it, the display on my big Dell LCD was badly distorted. The only flaw now is when jumping between X and the console, the latter is often completely garbled or off-center. The work-around is to switch back and forth two or three times until it shows up right. I had to do that in order to kill the X server and install the nVidia driver.

Other than that, I simply installed everything from the DVD as packages. I reserved the buildkernel and buildworld until later to get sound and so forth. I didn’t want to build too many packages without my favorite optimizations.

While poking around, I ran across a couple of conversations about 64-bit, particularly Athlons. More than one writer noted this was not a true 64-bit, but more like a 32-bit with extensions giving the ability to run in 64-bit mode. I’d never seen it put that way before, but realized it was true. That’s the architecture of the x86 chips. So choosing to run 32-bit on my Athlon X2 actually makes good sense. It also helps jump over the hurdles with some of the packages ported not building cleanly in 64-bit.

For the time being, I’m leaning away from building OpenOffice. I’ve done it on FreeBSD before, including on this machine, but that was back in the 1.x and 2.x series. There are fewer gotchas now, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. Every time I try to install the package from GoodDay, it always calls for burdensome updates of too many items in the ports tree. More than likely I’ll just work the Gnome Office; I have OO.org on other systems if I need it.

All in all, things are looking good. Much as I love RHEL and CentOS, I like FreeBSD better, when it’s an option. Right now it is, and a good one for me.

Update: Busted. I couldn’t get the sound driver to smooth out. Frequent pops and interruptions. Couldn’t get any music CD to play without skipping every few seconds. Apparently FreeBSD isn’t quite ready for my three-year-old hardware. Life is tough and you learn more when you fail.

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