What I’m Thinking - Jan '26...
Hear we are at January 13 already. I was thinking I might start a
blog about some of the things I’ve been thinking about lately. One
of the current news issues at the moment is, if we were to try to put
a name to it, “Who is Donald Trump and what do we do with him?”
He recently abducted the Venezuelan president and his
administration is saying strange things about taking over Greenland.
Europe are up in arms, nothing new there but: What is this Donald
Trump fellow up to? I mean the United States does radical stuff all
the time. They operate all over the world but usually their missions
are shrouded in secrecy. Trump is just such a talker, it must drive
the CIA, FBI, NSA and all the other acronyms crazy.
You know Trump is not a traditional conservative, right? As a Kiwi
I would cite men like Sir Keith Holyoak, Sir John Marshall and Sir
Brian Tallboys as being traditional conservatives. Men who held no
nonsense values and favored a hard working life where everyone had
equal opportunity. Something like that in any case. No, Mr Trump is a
billionaire oligarch like Mr Putin and his friends which is why they
get on so well. I’m fairly sure that when they look at you and me
they see a herd of cattle or a flock of Emus or something of that
ilk. What I’m saying is that they pretend to like us to control us
but don’t see us being equal to them.
So how do we assimilate this information. I guess we’ll just
have to passively wait and see what happens. The bible tells us that
God installs our leaders to keep order and achieve His objectives,
paraphrase but you get my meaning. You know what I think anyway. I
believe these are the last days of the Church Age and Jesus will
return soon but first a time destruction known as the Time of Jacob’s
Trouble. Never a dull moment.
Benjamin Netanyahu
So, I recently wrote a few supportive comments about Benjamin
Netanyahu on Face-book and encountered a bit of opposition from the
alien invasion lunatic fringe muttering about brown haired blue eyed
Jesus and a killing children will get you into hell. You know open
minded well informed kind of thinking. Interestingly, I was searching
up Palestinian DNA the other day to see if they were descended from
the Philistines. The blurb said they weren’t but the results might
be fudged. However, one article said that the Philistines are thought
to have been descended from a European tribe. The Palestinians are
genetically similar to middle eastern Jews and Arabs. So the reason
they hate Israel; Simply Palestine is Islam and they hate Israel;
even though many of the Palestinians could be the same race as the
Israelis’. Hard to credit.
As to Ben Netanyahu. Although he is not against Israel being
involved in the global economy he is a strong nationalist and a loyal
Israeli whilst being at the same time probably the most capable
leader Modern Israel has ever known. I believe he is God’s man for
the time. Ultimately though, God can defend Israel and he will do so.
Therefore we need have no fear, for Israel is here to stay. Despite
what all of naysayers and other disenfranchised folk have to say
about it. I rather liked this post from face book:
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=ben%20netayahu%20amos
Getting Old
I turned sixty five recently and I can
tell you that aging is a bit of a concern. You suddenly realise that
you may have to retire soon and that the financial ramifications of
that are significant. I also seem to be facing hearing which is going
into a decline to add to my sight which while being better than 20 –
20 is becoming increasingly long sighted so, I’m blind out to
around one meter.
I had a hip replacement some years ago
and the fact that the new hip doesn’t match the existing one in
gait results in stress on my knee joints and back which leave me in a
world of pain. Ligament damage in my left leg causes me to drag
myself upstairs with my arms which is causing nerve damage between my
shoulders. It all seems to be down hill from here. Oh well, never
mind.
Computing
I decided to get back into using Linux just because you have to
use the command line a bit more than just clicking install. I started
with Neon and Kubuntu two distros by KDE, one of the Linux
organisations. I wasn’t that pleased with them this time round and
so replaced them with another distro call Arch Linux. Arch is more of
a skilled user unit and you have to know what you’re doing to use
it, or so I’m assured. I find that there is so much information on
the Internet these days you can cut and paste commands and solve
problems that someone who knows has fixed before you. You just need
to be a bit discerning. I like Linux because it does challenge me and
keep my mind active so, it is a part of my anti Alzheimers
initiative.
The Weather this Month
The fires are raging in Australia and
have been happening in Kiwi-land, as well, over the last months despite
what has seemed like a very wet season here. My sister lives in
Australia and is in the fire zone so it has been a tense business
waiting on the outcomes of alerts and the need to have bags packed
and being ready to move. Speaking of fire risk, there is a paddock of
rank grass beside our property which isn’t being controlled
effectively at the moment.
There is a subdivision up the road
from us and a storm water system was needed so the powers that be
went to work and after two years had created two large dams and an
equally large spillway. The spillway area is being grazed but for
some reason the area beside our place is being left fallow. It is
covered in rank grass, at the moment, and is a fire hazard. One of
the problems with a move away from capitalism is that the signals
which cause people to produce more either don’t happen or are
ignored in the supposed best interest of something else. Possibly
what is happening here… ?
MMP – One Party State
A case in point is the land
surrounding Lake Rotorua and the other lakes. This land is under
grazing control meaning you can only have a certain number of animals
per hectare on that country, The result is a general lack of grazing
control and productivity of those farms going through the floor. The
land is going to waste. People talk about communism by stealth but
when the state controls how land is used at the expense of the
economy doesn’t that imply that the government is now more closely
aligned to socialism than capitalism. My question is when did this
take place. When we changed to MMP did we unknowingly sign onto a one
party state. Where political parties are now just sects of the same
one party system ??? Is this system socialist?
That’s it…
So, that’s some of the things that
are on my mind at the moment. Probably the only thing left for me to
mention is “What we are here to do in this life.” I don’t think
a lot of people really give a much thought to what they are here for.
Most seem to think its about being successful and becoming somebody,
or getting your family into a better situation where they are no
longer dependent on creating enough wealth to survive.
I am afraid there are over eight
billion other people on the Earth who share your aspirations and then
we move into the area of social responsibility. Creating a decent
level of wealth not just for your family but for everyone. But is
this what our existence is really all about? Life is so arbitrary.
One minute you’re doing great and then a cancer diagnosis or a car
accident and things either change or, suddenly this life is over.
Just like that!
Its no great secret that I am a
Christian. I believe this life is a temporal and a temporary thing.
It is more like a test than a competition. We’re not competing with
those around us to be most successful but God is testing us to see if
we will seek Him. You see, He wants a people for His own possession,
a people who will choose Him and who would want to reign with Him
forever.
In that vein, when our first parents
disobeyed God and broke their connection to Him. He planned to become
a man himself and to take the sins of the world on Himself. Jesus
Christ bore our sins on the Cross and shed His blood as the sacrifice
for our sins. So that we can believe on Him and receive eternal life.
So that we can repent and be baptised in His name for the remission
of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit.
You see, if you confess your sins, God
is faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you of all
unrighteousness. Thus, this life is about choosing God or rejecting
Him. About, becoming his special people or choosing to forego
eternity and to endure the second death. It’s up to you, but it’s
not about getting wealthy in the assets of this world rather it is
about storing up wealth in the life to come by choosing to obey the
one living God, Yahweh Elohim.
There ya go...