“Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: 'I am Who am.' The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: 'I am who am not.' Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.”
Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ
"They live out their days in prosperity, and slide peacefully down into hell."
Job 21:13
"There is probably no greater threat to the faithful than that of the sanctifying of success with worldly measures. Invariably, when a principled belief aligns itself with the state, and the wealthy, and the powerful, it ends up as lost as if it was suffering persecution."
Jesse, Sanctifying Greed, 6 June 2023
"The lofty mind of man can be imprisoned by the artifices of its own making. If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves."
E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2010
"During this time, a growing professional class believed that scientific progress could be used to cure all social ills, and many educated people accepted that humans, like all animals, were subject to natural selection. Darwinian evolution viewed humans as a flawed species that required pruning to maintain its health. Therefore negative eugenics seemed to offer a rational solution to certain age-old social problems."
David Micklos, Elof Carlson, Engineering American Society: The Lesson of Eugenics, 2000
"Many commentators automatically assume that low intergenerational mobility rates represent a social tragedy. I do not understand this reflexive wailing and beating of breasts in response to the finding of slow mobility rates.
The children of earlier elites will not succeed because they are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and an automatic ticket to the Ivy League. They will succeed because they have inherited the talent, energy, drive, and resilience to overcome the many obstacles they will face in life. Life is still a struggle for all who hope to have economic and social success. It is just that we can predict who will be likely to possess the necessary characteristics from their ancestry."
Greg Clark, The Economist, 13 Feb. 2013
What is offensive is that they lie, and worship their own lying."
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, 1956
"The humility of the righteous will guide them, but the deceitfulness of the proud will destroy them."
Proverbs 11:2-3
"Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now."
Aaron Bushnell
The young man and his friends were visiting our in-laws in northern Ohio
this weekend, and watched the totality of the eclipse from Edgewater
Park on Lake Erie.
Stocks traded weakly and listlessly today, finishing slightly lower.
But VIX dropped rather sharply. Yay us.
Gold and silver moved higher.
The Dollar chopped sideways.
We have inflation data this week. That may provide some impetus for action.
And people, even though who think of themselves as 'truth-tellers,' just believe what they wish to believe, what suits their narrative.
January 6 was just people visiting the Capitol.
Gaza is a highly moral nation of righteousness trying to protect itself.
We can't help it that stupid people get hurt. It's just business.
What we do is obviously God's will, because we grow and prosper, and triumph over all.
We are exceptional, a shining city on a hill, a beacon of light to the nations.
And if the prophets and messengers tell us otherwise, we persecute, imprison, and murder them.
When we face judgement, the penetrating truth of who we are and what we have done will be irresistible, and searing.
I suspect purgatory is the convergence of the lies we tell ourselves, and the reality of who we are.
Better to face it now, a little at a time.
Ask God to show you your sins, and open your hearts to His instruction and mercy. It is not a one and done, but a process.
There is only so much we can do for people. Even if someone gives their life for them, and then comes back from the dead to warn them and give them hope, they don't want to listen, and cover their ears with lies.
And give themselves over to idols, and falsehoods, and demagogues.
It is a sickness unto death. One from which there may be no escape.
Have a pleasant evening.
