A parable of relief vs. advocacy
“Relief” refers to providing for needy people’s immediate survival needs — food, shelter and clothing, direct material gifts. “Advocacy” refers to political activism, meant to change policies and laws. People and organizations who presume to serve the poor, face choices as to which one to emphasize.
The parable of the babies in the river addresses that choice. Activists love it. Desmond Tutu and others have endorsed it.
The scientific reason your world brightens up when you do
This study affirms some common observations about color perceptions and emotional states. When one is enraged, the color red appears more vivid in one’s perceptions; when depressed, the color blue. When one feels elated, all colors appear brighter, and in times of severe depression color perception can all but disappear; the world looks black and white. Or, perhaps, bleak and white.
The study attempts, and IMO fails, to attribute these things to the activity of neurotransmitters such as dopamine. But there is no finding of direct action by such neurotransmitters on the color-perceiving apparatus of the visual cortex.
Continue reading “Seeing red” is real. But how does it happen?
Some stories from my former career.
1 John 1:5:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 4:8:
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
The author of John appears not to have been aware of Isaiah 45:5-7:
Continue reading Bible contradictions #08: Is God love and light?
On Sunday, December 30, 2018, this 7-year old girl was sitting in the rear of her mother’s SUV as it exited the parking lot of a Houston shopping center. A pickup truck pulled alongside, and someone in that truck opened fire upon Jazmine’s vehicle, killing her and injuring several others.
Her mother, the driver of her vehicle, said the shooter was white.
A firestorm of racial furor ensued. Perennial race-baiting provocateur Shaun King offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perp. Someone claimed it. However, persons the snitch named are both black.
Related: I really want to see Shaun King pay a snitch $100K.
Not what we were taught in Sunday school.
According to 2 Kings 24:3, the Babylonian Exile was God’s punishment upon the nation for the sins of Manasseh. In the thinking of ancient times, the righteousness or sin of a king was attributed also to the nation as a whole. See also 2 Kings 21:10-15 and 2 Kings 23:26-27.
Continue reading Bible contradictions #07: What caused the Babylonian exile?
What you or I want does not matter.
Music: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Strange Things Happening Every Day”
Continue reading Podcast — Facts and Law: Will Donald Trump be indicted, or not?
Related: What’s in a name?
Related: Choose your name
Man allegedly shot into Whitehaven home with ex-girlfriend, baby inside
The Homeless Blogger 