Always Reforming

    Bernie Sanders must certainly qualify as one of the great political disappointments of the last few election cycles.  A relative no-name, he purported to start a revolution built upon honesty, common sense, and a fresh perspective.  As with our upcoming national Presidential election, the Democratic primaries were binary.  Democrats were given two choices: fresh and revolutionary (Sanders) or established and safe (Clinton).  Clinton, who has traditionally played the part of the moderate, tried to appear progressive (thereby showing that she will play any part necessary to advance herself), but everyone knew who she is--the establishment favorite.  I have no desire to comment on the exposed corruption within the DNC or Sander's policies.  Today I want to discuss his so-called revolution.     Sanders is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist (the "democratic" doesn't mitigate the "socialist" nearly as much as one would hope), so in ...

    Much has been made lately of Christian liberty.  It seems to be the answer to any sort of ethical ambiguity or rebuke.  How could you watch that?  Christian liberty!  How could you vote for him/her?  Christian liberty, of course!  How could you  do [fill in the blank]?  Haven't you ever heard of Christian liberty?!  Violating your brother's Christian liberty appears to be the only thing that can't be covered under the Christian liberty clause of Christianity.  This abuse of Christian liberty appears to demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of what Christian liberty really is.     What do most people mean these days by Christian liberty?  It is commonly believed that Christian liberty is the Christian's freedom from "law."  By that some mean the Old Testament Law, while others intend law in general--"rules," if you will.  In practice, however, Christian liberty often ends up meaning "I'm saved...

   If you want to vote for Donald Trump, feel free.  I am not here to dictate to your conscience what you should do.  I ain't God and I ain't yer momma, but at least be aware of exactly what you're doing. Let me offer you ten stark statements about what you're doing when you place your vote behind such a man.  When you vote for Donald Trump, you are voting for a man who: 1) Insinuated that Ted Cruz's father was connected with JFK's assassin. 2) Mocked the appearance of Ted Cruz's wife. 3) Made fun of a reporter with a physical disability. 4) Made disturbing comments on his daughter's physical appearance. 5) Appeared on the cover of Playboy. 6) Cheated on his wives. 7) Made phallic references during a debate. 8) Went bankrupt . 9) Donated money to Hillary and Co. 10) Has changed his views on almost everything.     Once again, vote as you think you should.  Many people choose a candidate primarily based on the oppositi...

    So  Ted Cruz got booed at the RNC because his speech stopped short of offering a public endorsement of the Trump/Pence (more on Pence later) ticket.  What does that say about the Republican party?  Nothing new, really.  It tells us that politics is, as it has always been, an insiders' game.  So here's my message to Ted Cruz.     Ted, thank you.  Thank you for being one principled man amongst a sea of spineless politicians. Thank you for going against your initial promise to endorse the Republican candidate.  You had every reason (both political and personal) in the world to do so.  Thank you for committing political suicide by refusing to do what the establishment wanted you to do.  Thank you for putting your family before your chances of becoming the president in eight years.  Thank you for refusing to grovel at the feet of Donald Trump in hopes of garnering an appointment to a cabinet position.  Thank y...

    We hear it every primary season.  "I would never vote for [fill in the blank]!"  As the candidates begin to be weeded out, some resolve is lost, but there still remains quite a few resisting the apparent candidate.  "Well, I don't know if I can vote for [fill in the blank]..."  Come convention time, the resolve is lost and binary thought creeps in.  "I really don't like [fill in the blank], but we just can't let [fill in the blank] win!"  This election cycle has done nothing to demonstrate a change in this binary thought process.     Republicans have gotcha again!  The moment you begin to think in Blue vs. Red, GOP vs. Dem, or Elephant vs. Donkey terms, you've already lost.  They already have you.  You actually think there is a difference.  You actually believe that the Republican establishment is significantly better than the Democratic establishment.  If you think that the Republican party is offering a c...

    We all seem to have this idea that the world is worse off now than at any point in history.  There's more murders, racism, crime, drug use, etc.  Right?  Well, maybe not.  The world has been a pretty crappy place for a while now (pretty much since the Fall).  People have been killing each other ever since Cain lured Abel out into that field for some quality "bro" time.  People have been divisive and hateful over silly things like skin color for a long dang time (basically every people group has been enslaved at one point in time).  Man's depravity is not getting worse. Technology is simply getting better.     I'm only 26, but even I have witnessed a change in the way we live our lives.  Americans lost their isolationist tendencies long ago, but access to the intimate civil affairs and tragedies of other countries has only recently been practical.  Back in 1995 we waited at least a day or two to hear awful news. ...

    Vaccines.  Evolution.  Santa Claus.  What do these three things have in common?  I don't believe in any of them (well, Saint Nick was a real guy).  A large percentage of you have already written off anything I'm about to say.  A few may agree with me.  The rest of you might just be intrigued enough to continue reading (before I get to my main point, let me clarify that vaccines do work, I just don't think we should indiscriminately give them to everyone; also, I believe in microevolution, not macroevolution).     Anyway, regardless of how you feel about vaccines and evolution (and, hey, I know some of you still believe in Santa Claus), there is an underlying issue on which we should all agree--the limitations of science (science, of course, is not a concrete thing, but I will personify it here, as that is normal usage in our day).   Science , by definition, acknowledges its own limitations.  It uses them as its motiv...

    Black vs. white.  Cop vs. civilian.  Us vs. them.  When we start thinking like that, we've already lost.  We've already let the establishment beat us when we divide over racial and social issues.  We've already let the media manipulate us when we hate each other.     Cops aren't out there looking to kill black people.  Certainly there are some cops who are racists, but your average police officer does not harbor ill will for every black person he sees.  Police brutality does occur, and it ought to be punished appropriately, but rioting in the streets and gunning down "pigs" is not the solution.  Blind faith in our police force is hardly advisable, but most cops don't want wake up in the morning hoping to make the news because they shot someone.  There will be bad eggs.  For example, there was a local cop in Canton, OH who made the news for all the wrong reasons when he harassed a driver with a concealed carry li...

    Well, Hillary Clinton is in the news again.  The FBI has recommended to the DOJ that they not prosecute Hillary Clinton because, though our former Secretary of State was careless in violating laws about handling classified information, she did not do so with any sort of criminal intent.  The head of the DOJ had formerly conceded  that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI (and others within her own department) due to a shady conflict of interest situation, so it looks official--Hillary ain't even getting a slap on the wrist!  The language is really mind-blowing.  Director Comey described Clinton's actions as "extremely careless," but saw no need for charges to be filed.     Let's take a step back.  It's obvious that Republicans are looking for ammo against their political enemy.  Much of the hullabaloo surrounding this case can be directly linked to Hillary running for office.  Her crimes (she clearly committed...