Blogging to work out my thinking about issues in technology, programming, religion, and politics.
James 5:14,15 – “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”
I’m standing on this promise, and holding God to His Word about it.
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”
It’s a quote from the HBO miniseries about the Chernobyl disaster. You can see the truth of it at first glance, but the REAL problem here — in the disaster, and in personal life — is that the narcissistic, sociopathic, and avaricious (extremely greedy) people who tell the most, biggest, and longest-term lies are often NOT the ones who pay the debt.
I’ve gotten emails about being in 3 class-action settlements against Verizon, Anthem, and Walgreens. I usually click through them and just see what happens. The Verizon one started distributions today. My take? $12.15. On a prepaid, digital-only card that the plan administrators probably are getting kickbacks for using. This stuff is all such a joke. There ought to be a law that says if the settlement won’t yield, like, at least THREE figures of money for people, the lawyers don’t get to file and make all their filthy lucre.
Many, many years ago, a preacher I respected mispronounced “concupiscence” — or maybe it was “incontience” — some “bible” word — and I made the mistake of pointing it out. It was even privately, one-on-one, well after the fact. He proceeded to tell me a long story about how he heard his pastor mispronounce a word once, and as he struggled to get a note to him to point it out, he heard him explain the word correctly anyway. The lesson was obvious. You shouldn’t try to correct your spiritual superiors. It’s not your place.
Several years later, he told a story about a woman in Las Vegas getting into an elevator with 2 black men, and thinking they wanted to rob her, and she got all scared and dropped her bucket of slot machine coins. As the story goes, it turns out it was Eddie Murphy and Michael Jordan, who thought it was funny, and sent her a bunch of money wrapped around roses or something. It was one of those stupid email chain letter things in the 90’s, the kind that Snopes was invented to debunk. It never happened.
Having seen this long before, and not being about anything spiritual, and ignorantly thinking he wouldn’t want to relay “fake news,” I sent the Snopes article to him. Just him. I didn’t CC anyone else. I wasn’t trying to embarrass him. A few months later, he told the whole story again, with nary a hint of it being fake. I took that as a direct shot at me, to show that he was going to say whatever he wanted in the pulpit, no matter what. I understood the point to be that I should never question him. About anything. Ever. After that day, I didn’t. In fact, I can’t recall ever saying anything to him about what he preached again, good or bad.
Because I never brought it up, and never talked about his preaching again, I’m sure he felt the “teaching moment” had achieved its intended effect. However, the lesson I actually learned from it was that he played fast and loose with the truth, even if he was in the pulpit, and I never looked at him the same way again.
Little did I know that this was the first few snowflakes that would eventually start an avalanche.
According to Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, every undocumented immigrant should worry they could be arrested at any time, even if they have no criminal record.
Source: Trump’s border czar: ‘If you’re in the country illegally, you got a problem’ – ABC News
That this administration has arrested and deported over 500 violent illegal aliens within days of assuming power isn’t really the story, is it? The real story is that law enforcement knew these guys existed, exactly where they were, that they were illegal, and that they had committed violent crimes, yet the previous administration did nothing about them. The Democrats were apparently happy to leave them in place, continuing to commit crimes and harass their communities. Not deporting them clearly wasn’t a problem with intelligence or manpower. Not using these resources to protect our citizens was a choice. It’s always been a choice. ABC is trying to report this new policy like it’s a scandal, but how is this divisive? Where is the grey area? How can any sane person not be in favor of this?
Source: macos – No route to host on iterm2 only – Ask Different
This is the second time I’ve had to do this. I really must remember this this time.
How it feels being the only one who understands the assignment.
Justice John Roberts said that “Congress is fine with the expression,” but “not fine with a foreign adversary … gathering all this information about the 170 million people who use TikTok.”
Source: MacRumors: Apple News and Rumors
So you’re trying to tell me that gathering “all this information” is, in fact, dangerous to our republic and our freedoms, but it’s acceptable when every US company and the NSA all do it? Have I got that right? It is a realistic security problem, but it’s not an abridgment of the Fourth Amendment? Really? OK, just checking.
Larry Ellison is the CEO of Oracle, the 19th most valuable company in the world. They make a database. The FBI were Larry and Oracle’s first customer, and the FBI/CIA/NSA all use it for everything. So when Larry Ellison brags that AI is going to enforce “social credit”, it’s because he knows 1) the deep state is going to make another HUGE investment in his software, 2) he’s going to make even more money, and 3) investors stand to make even more money. And of course Business Insider — being a mouth piece for the deep state — makes this news.
And what would a Summer be without grabbing a fishing pole and heading down to your favorite radioactive watering hole? No need to worry about finding out because fishing is coming to the wasteland this Summer and is angling to reel-in our esteemed adventurers, collectors and traveling trawlers alike.
It all starts at a mysterious location where players encounter a fisherman who has decided to set up camp and share their love for fishing to one and all… or so it seems. This strange merchant will sell our players everything they need to catch any of the slimy, scaled swimmers found in all bodies of water across Appalachia. Sharpen those hooks! We’ll be eating well!
Source: Thank You, Vault Dwellers!
Adding fishing to Fallout 76…
Of all the awful things in ESO, fishing is the awfullest. Of course they would add it to Fallout 76.
