Don't Watch the News

Actually, Don't Watch too Much of Anything!

June 22, 2023

signing off from 95% of social media, TV, movies, most novels, and politics, and trying to focus on things that really matter – but first, I have to admit that I do sort of stay up with the news, at least the underground news, thanks to substacks that I follow…

Being kind of a morning person, I try to always start my day with praise and thanks and prayer and a little bible reading. I came to this passage today:

 “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” Ephesians 5:11-13

… Be careful if you’re in the stock market – this is from Jim Rickards’ article in paradigm press Monday June 19^th: 

“AI/GPT robots can flood the internet with fake stories designed to mislead other AI/GPT robots trained to look for words and phrases in those fake stories. This is a case of robots misleading other robots to disrupt markets. Considering that 95% of all stock trading today is fully automated (meaning that actual humans do not make the buy or sell decisions, but robots do based on keywords and limit orders), we’re quickly in a world where robots are trading stocks based on what other robots have recommended after those robots have themselves been misled by still more robots attempting to fool the former.”

Although out of context, this excerpt from the Wall St Journal is very telling:

“…after years of allowing gender treatments for kids, five European countries—the U.K., Sweden, Finland, Norway and France—now urge caution, stressing the lack of evidence that benefits to kids outweigh the risks.”

…Climate control activism is anti-life. Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand governments are all talking about killing about 10% of their cattle herds to reduce emissions. Since we all exhale CO2, I hope this trend doesn’t extend to humans next…

…Wind farm developers are complaining that they need higher electricity rates in order to make a profit…

“Let me quote the FT: “But he added that the electricity prices the UK government offers to developers are not high enough to absorb surging costs and ministers may struggle to secure the rapid capacity growth they need to hit climate targets.” Irena Slav, quoting the Financial Times of London

More money for Ukraine

“Congress apparently isn’t forking over the moolah fast enough, so the Pentagon has, once again, “revised” how it valued the weapons it already gave to Ukraine under prior authorizations. By re-shrinking the old numbers, which used to be called cooking the books, the Pentagon has stretched some new room into the Proxy War budget, allowing sending Zelenskey and his cronies another $6.2 billion dollars worth of explosive toys….It’s the second time they’ve reduced the value of the military hardware already given to Ukraine, to create a moronic pretext for giving the struggling Ukrainians some more hardware without having to talk Congress into approving anything. And that’s not all! The State Department is chipping in another $1.3 billion as well, to help rebuild stuff.…the extra billion is for rebuilding Ukraine’s war-torn infrastructure. Of course, anyone with an IQ over 80 understands that before you start rebuilding stuff, you have to stop doing war first. Otherwise, when you rebuild the power plant, Russia will just blow it up again, leaving you a half billion poorer while enriching a bunch of sketchy-looking, tracksuit-wearing, gold chain-draped Ukrainian ‘contractors.’” From Jeff Childers’ “Coffee and Covid” substack, 6/21/23

Finally, the main topic today…

garbage

Being a rather conservative fellow, I noticed long ago that movies, books of fiction, and most of TV carry a lot of garbage. I’ll define garbage as time-wasting, bad language, and glamorizing of immoral behavior. So years ago I stopped going to movies unless my kids drag me, saying “Come on, Dad, you’ll like this one”. Actually, I think they gave up about 10 years ago…

subliminal messaging

Even the fantasy movies, like Star Wars (am I dating myself?) have subliminal messages that are rather anti-biblical – like “the Force be with you”. God is not just a force – He is Love and Light and Truth and Creator and Life-giver and Healer and Provider who can Save us and give us personal Hope and Joy.

hard to find a good book

I like to read, and have been developing a list of authors that I like and trust to provide decent reading (not full of bad language or explicit sex, for example) that is well written. It’s very hard to find any clean reading since about the 1950s, unless of course, it’s non-fiction, which accounts for about 2/3 of my reading. I often try a new author of a book that sounds like it has a good story but end up taking the book back to the library the next day, after finding out that the author doesn’t seem to know the English language well enough to be able to say something without resorting to using filthy language.

don’t curse your rulers

I was reading in the Book of Acts and came across this verse in chapter 23 verse 5: *  “…You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people”.  So no matter who is president, we are to respect the office, and no matter what he or she does, we as Christians are not to speak evil of them.

*Luke, the author of Acts, is quoting Paul the apostle, who is referring to the Law in Exodus 22:28: “…you shall not curse a ruler of your people.” Paul is considering speaking evil about someone as a form of cursing them.

Note: We are not to curse our leaders, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore or suppress the truth or fail to call them to account. When Jesus was warned that Herod wanted to kill him, he called Herod a fox. (Luke 13:32). He called the Pharisees ‘whited sepulchers’. Speaking of truth about leaders, here’s another excerpt from Jim Rickards’ “paradigm press” June19th:

Ukraine

“Senator Chuck Grassley has revealed that the redacted portions of the report describe how a Ukrainian oligarch had 17 tape recordings of conversations with Hunter and Joe Biden in which the actual mechanics of the bribe were discussed. The oligarch said he made the tapes as a kind of an “insurance policy” in case he ever got into trouble so he could use them to blackmail Biden for protection.”

so how do we focus on the positive?

There is no way I could say it better than how it’s already been said:

   “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8

 “ Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” Romans.12:2

 “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4

 “…make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands…” 1Thessalonians 4:11   That’s why it’s good to have a garden!

 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Ephesians 5:25

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

what’s important

God, family, and helping others.     The rest is mostly just noise and distraction. May you have a blessed day and a focus on what’s important.

next week - book review