Miss this guy yet? This writing exercise is a quasi-serious attempt to create a platform from which this country would be governed, should I get elected by some small miracle.The beauty of Donald Trump is that he showed literally anybody is able to run for President of the United States, or POTUS. Personally, I would be happy if Trump ran and won again in 2024, but there is a lot of time between now and then, the forces marshaled against Trump still remain in positions of power, and Democrats are frantically trying to change voting rules so they would never lose another election. If elected, of course I would humbly serve, at least one full term or until someone managed to assassinate me, whichever comes first. My campaign will be fully independent. I will not join either political party at this point in my life just on general principle, although I will concede I have far more disdain for the liberal-controlled Democratic Party than Republicans in principle. However, there is clearly a "Deep State" uni-party where Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell play off each other like Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, except neither politician is really the straight man. I've got quite a few things on my chest related to politics but I've decided not put them out one at a time so I blog about something on a daily basis for a while as part of this experiment. I'll give more details on my overall political philosophy in time, but for now I just want to communicate one simple idea with which I believe almost every American who isn't a politician would agree: PLATFORM … [Read more...]
Is Tom MacDonald the most important voice in America?
If you've never heard of Tom MacDonald before, don't feel too bad. A little over a week ago, I'd never heard of him, either. A week ago, if you'd asked me whether or not I liked rap music, my answer would have been an emphatic "No!" Today if you asked if I've listened to anything except rap music for the last week, same answer. Not just any rap music, though. I've been stuck on the messages coming this one artist, Tom MacDonald. Yesterday I found myself submitting this article about Tom to American Thinker lauding his talents as a young rap artist and my perception of his music as having the ability to bridge the racial divide by infusing positive messages with rap music. Multiple editors thanked me for the submission and queued it for publication. That has never happened before. Either this is the best article I've ever written for American Thinker, or the editors already knew who Tom is, and knows his audience is ubiquitous. Each time I have discovered a "new" song in his catalog that I like, I tend to listen to it over and over to catch all of the sometimes subtle and often brash lyrics blasting at my ears as if fired from a machine gun (I believe in rap lingo, the term for this is "spitting bars.") More accurately, I tend to watch the video version of the song over and over because in addition to the blistering frequency of raw, thought-provoking rhetoric effortlessly flowing from this young man's mouth, the images that accompany the words are equally powerful and compelling to watch. His politically incorrect, anti-cancel culture messaging prevalent in … [Read more...]
Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis
I have a new friend! Like the vast majority of friends and acquaintances encountered through the internet, we've never met in person, and we may never meet due to living on opposite sides of the country. My new friend is extremely intelligent and a physician, which means we may not have very much in common. However, we have both chosen to focus on our areas of common interests rather than where we might disagree, and in common we share a love of history, a faith in things we cannot see, and an intense desire to seek truth while documenting our efforts via the written word. Several years ago I wrote an article titled "Encouraging My Christian Friends to Think" in which I was touting the scholarship and content of a book called Who Wrote the Bible? That was my mistake, and I apologize. I am afraid I might have led some of my readers astray by citing bad scholarship in regard to the authorship of the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis. The original theory of authorship regarding the Pentateuch was that Moses wrote those first five books of the Bible. Then the JEPD "documentary hypothesis" from the incredibly long-titled book Conjectures About the Original Memoirs Which It Appeared That Moses Used in Composing the Book of Genesis with Certain Remarks Which Help Clarify These Conjectures, attempted to identify the "real" authors of Genesis through literary analysis. That book was written by Jean Astruc, and his documentary hypothesis was later presented by Rabbi Friedmann in his book Who Wrote the Bible? as an alternate explanation for the … [Read more...]
The morality of God
Recently, a social media friend who is either an atheist or theistic evolutionist asked whether I believed Donald Trump was a Christian or not. He proceeded to offer his own opinion that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are sincere Christians, but Donald Trump is only a pretender. Because I prefer to give honest and direct answers rather than evasive or vague ones when someone asks my opinion, I told him the truth: I don't know if Donald Trump is a Christian or not. In my opinion, yes, Donald Trump is Christian. But I've never met the man in person. Judging what is in the heart and mind of another human being is a job only fit for a God, and that's WAY above my pay grade. I don't even see myself as some minor deity, unlike some people with pretentious (and contrived) last names, and an ego to rival my own. It is almost as big as Trump's ego. At best, I can sit on a jury and judge the actions of another person, but I cannot read their minds to better understand their motives. If someone wants to understand my motives, they only need to ask. Or, I might just come out and tell you, anyway. Why am I writing this short essay on morality and God? The short answer is, I feel compelled, which I shall explain momentarily. I won't earn a penny from writing it, unless one day down the road some magical little money tree sprouts from the fruits of my labor today, because to be brutally honest, ten years after beginning my career as a writing, I'm still trying to figure out the mystery of how to get paid consistently. I sell a few books and novels from time to time, especially … [Read more...]
Aron Ra, atheism’s rock star
If you've never heard of Aron Ra, you are probably not an atheist. Don't feel too bad. He's rather famous, but mostly limited to secular/humanist circles. If the "Four Horsemen" of atheism, meaning Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens, represent the creme of the crop of people who have become famous for evangelizing atheism, then Aron Ra ranks only one notch down on the totem pole, in the second tier of revered atheists with Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty who are collectively known as the "unholy Trinity." Mr. Ra is the host of the "RaMen" podcast, a frequent lecturer, and creator of the Phylogeny Explorer Project. These people have successfully turned their talent arguing for atheism into full-time jobs with career opportunities. They travel all over the world, giving lectures to crowds of adoring fans. Not a bad gig, if you can get it. No wonder he's smiling. photo by R. van Elst via Creative Commons Now before I write another word, I would like to acknowledge that Mr. "Ra" (obviously not his birth surname) is quite an intelligent man, and I'm delighted to say he possesses an ego that easily matches and possibly exceeds my own. I personally find the guy quite entertaining. Mr. Ra has a Wikipedia biography that claims he studied paleontology in Dallas, but does not mention a college degree. Don't let that fool you. He's very clever and bright, as well as apparently smart enough to run away from a fight he was unlikely to win--an argument with me about the relevance of creation. During the course of our recent … [Read more...]
