Bookmarks: “The stimulus debate continues” “Lean not unto your own understanding” Russell Simmons on silence and presence Teresa Giudice update “Enhanced interrogation” back in the news
Barack Obama inherited the Great Recession from George W. Bush. Note that I do not believe it was Bush’s “fault.”
But at risk was a global economic disaster.
The strident opposition to the economic stimulus did not offer any alternative. No better plan. No plan at all.
At this date, it still appears to me the strident opposition was actually to the president’s skin color.
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“Lean not unto your own understanding”
Thursday 2014-02-20, 12:00. I have just opened what needs to be my final pack of smokes. In recent weeks I came through a time of severe financial distress, and if I don’t quit smoking now, I’ll very soon just be in that state again.
Proverbs 3:5-6 is one of the Bible verses most frequently quoted by presenters at the shelter’s chapel services:
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. It irks me, as the gist most often seems to be, “Believe what we tell you to, and you’ll never again have to take responsibility for yourself,” or, “Believe what we tell you to, and you’ll never again face any problem in life.”
Maybe I do need to “trust in the LORD” more. However, God gave us all minds. And we’re responsible to use them.
Wednesday morning 2014-02-19, I was in a much heightened state of spiritual awareness. This does not necessarily surprise, as apparently the moon was in Leo. I obtained profound insights about a number of things that have concerned me for some time.
For all that, I received neither any insight nor any impulse about smoking.
So, no matter what profound gates of spiritual understanding may, from time to time, open themselves to one’s awareness; one is still responsible to apply one’s mind to the plain facts at hand, the concrete circumstances of one’s own life.
I could give a short list of people known to me whom I regard as bona fide clairvoyants. Their life stories often include episodes where each one of them did some things that were just plain stupid.
I think I understand that now.
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Mentions that “torture” did not obtain any useful information from al-Qaeda detainees.
(Originally posted 03/17/14.)
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