Thursday, December 25, 2008

God make you Mighty

How are you Gentlemen? Perhaps merry? Perhaps joyful? Mayhaps cheery? At times peaceful? Tis Christmas day, for some this day is full of light and life, for others it is lonely and dark, and for yet more just a reason to party and get completely innebriated. I find it sad when I see many who I know and care for spend a Christmas poorly either in themselves or in their actions and if I had a prayer granted unto me it would be that all I love (the love which Christ gave to me) would pass this Holyday with joy and peace. Each of them knowing the truth of salvation, all of them sharing in the race that I run, and every one God blessed and blessing others. This is the Stranger's cry, all of you who read here, God make you mighty, God make you well, God make you holy, and God make you rebel. Rebel from conforming to the darkness in this world, and make you an heir with Christ himself for eternity.

Mighty Christ, merry Christmas.

Dt

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Honor Among Thieves

Some say there are only two absolutes in this world, death and taxes. This is fairly same as saying there is only one absolute of many eventualities, sin and the consequences thereof. Now, you might be saying to yourself just now, taxes? Sin? Where's bad? Well, wonder no more my fine friend. I, the Stranger, shall make apparent to you the connections using economic principles combined with biblical truth.

When sin entered into the world it carried with it certain partners in crime. Death, first among them, followed directly on sin's heels with it's big, scary scythe. Also with it came a world of scarcity and hardship. This scarcity was coupled with something we humans had even before the fall, which was infinite desire. This is how we now understand economics as the decisions made by individuals in a world of scarce resources and infinite desires.

If there were no scarcity there would be no need for economics for all would have just what they wanted. This is the proposition upon which my reasoning shall rest, before the fall of man there was no lack of anything for man and therefore little or no reason for an economy. Thereby economics, while not evil or sinful, is a product of a sinful world.

Economics as an idea has no sin within it. It simply states a truth, people act the way they do because they want something in a world with a limited number of things. People can use either good or bad economics for evil purposes to do things which would normally be illegal. For instance, some taxes do what is called redistribution. That is, take from one group of people and give to another group. It could be the group receiving the money is in legitimate crises and without the money provided by the tax would either disburse or suffer. Yet, as Bastiat once said, what special immunity does the government have which protect them from prosecution of simple burglary? If a man were to go to the houses of the rich, plunder them for their jewels and money, and spread the resources among the poor and needy then he would still be prosecuted for committing an illegal act.

Some would argue that this is indeed not illegal yet perhaps it is merely convenient to do so when you appear to be in the altruistic position and you are not harmed by the transaction. It seems a bit funny that many of the people who argue this way are by no means rich or simply have constituents who are not rich. I digress, back to the point. An office of government which has legitimate use and purpose in a society of rarity and sin is by no means immune from corruption. Many of them cause actions like unto the example previously given.

It is in this way that taxes, which have many useful purposes, can be twisted to the purpose of those who claim to protect the interests of the people yet are in actuality merely using popular ideas to promote their own position. For sin is common to men and with sin come greed, pride, and deceit. As in every field of this world full of conflict politics and taxes is filled with goodness and evil alike. And just as in every situation when power and influence are injected in the people within the situation tend to show their pride by craving more and abusing what they have been given. As a famous saying describes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The question which remains is, is there not a better way in which to have a government of accountability and of effectiveness within the society by which it stands?

Dt

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Prelude

Salud fellow cyber surfers!  Tis I, the Stranger, who bids thee welcome here.  This is a prelude and nothing more, but a messenger for things to come.  Soon I shall be on winter break and I aim to do some serious logging.  I have thought and experienced much this past semester, much which needs telling.  Among these experiences I have found I lack the formal skills I once had, my papers this semester were good but more difficult to write than usual.  To remedy this I will post more commentaries than stories (or at least, that's the plan).  If the mood for a story strikes I will simply store it and use it later during the school year so as to keep on my formal writing plan.  Some may be rejoicing at my return from the lucid eccentricities of my mind and into more logical and real things.  Although I would contest my stories to be just as real in their own way as my commentaries are, but that is another matter.

To get back to the point, I will be posting again soon and you may expect it to be as strange and out of the ordinary as it tends to be just without the scintillating imagery.  Until then,

Dt

About Me

My photo
If you don't already know me, you don't need to know. If you know me then you already know. You will find only my thoughts in this blog, hopefully you will also think.