Just read this tonight and it makes sense. I'm taking this from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, Book II: What Christians Believe, Chapter 4: The Perfect Penitent. Keep in mind that Lewis wrote this at a time when it was common to refer to humanity as "Man" and "Mankind." Here he asks "what was the sort of 'hole' that man had gotten himself into?" He answers (Lewis, not Mankind):
"He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor - this movement full speed astern - is what Christianity calls repentence. Now repentence is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person - and he would not need to."
Christians believe that Jesus was that perfect person.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
No taxes? Not according to Stockman.
For those who say that we need to keep taxes low, let me ask you: how are we going to pay for the war? Both of them? How are we going to keep our children (and yes, every single child in this country is our child) educated, healthy and housed? How are we going to ensure that the Social Security that you and I have paid into all of our lives will be there for us?
We are going to have to not only cut spending, but raise taxes in order to balance the budget. Some say that will slow down the economy and is no was to go. But that just strikes me as a pitch for big business to hold on to as much money as possible. David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, said recently that "If we cut spending and raise taxes, it may slow down the economy even more, but that's, unfortunately, the choice that we face."
Stockman, in a recent NPR interview, said some enlightening things about the current economic crisis, and how both the Democratic and Republican parties are not facing up to the hard choices that we are going to have to make. He criticized the Republican Party's Contract with America, calling it "half right on some things, and...half baked on a lot of others." Specifically, the Contract calls for cuts in non-defense spending of up to 100 billion dollars, and Stockton points out that the deficit is 1.5 trillion and growing. In his estimation, "it's pretty obvious you can't get the job done." He also thinks that Obama is being disingenuous by saying that he will propose no new taxes on the middle class, or anyone who earns under $250,000.00. When asked if we are going to need to raise taxes on the middle class, this former budget director for one of the most conservative administrations in the 20th century answered: "Sure, absolutely. He should tell them, we're going to raise all your taxes because that's the only way we can support all these programs that I want to keep."
Stockman gives credence to the practical wisdom of reducing spending and raising taxes in order to get the government back in balance. We're going to have to bite the bullet. Stop talking about reducing taxes or making the Bush era tax cuts permanent. And by the way, all of you who consider yourselves patriotic Americans, raising taxes is a patriotic act. If you aren't willing to have your taxes raised in order to pay for the war, that is unpatriotic.
We are going to have to not only cut spending, but raise taxes in order to balance the budget. Some say that will slow down the economy and is no was to go. But that just strikes me as a pitch for big business to hold on to as much money as possible. David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, said recently that "If we cut spending and raise taxes, it may slow down the economy even more, but that's, unfortunately, the choice that we face."
Stockman, in a recent NPR interview, said some enlightening things about the current economic crisis, and how both the Democratic and Republican parties are not facing up to the hard choices that we are going to have to make. He criticized the Republican Party's Contract with America, calling it "half right on some things, and...half baked on a lot of others." Specifically, the Contract calls for cuts in non-defense spending of up to 100 billion dollars, and Stockton points out that the deficit is 1.5 trillion and growing. In his estimation, "it's pretty obvious you can't get the job done." He also thinks that Obama is being disingenuous by saying that he will propose no new taxes on the middle class, or anyone who earns under $250,000.00. When asked if we are going to need to raise taxes on the middle class, this former budget director for one of the most conservative administrations in the 20th century answered: "Sure, absolutely. He should tell them, we're going to raise all your taxes because that's the only way we can support all these programs that I want to keep."
Stockman gives credence to the practical wisdom of reducing spending and raising taxes in order to get the government back in balance. We're going to have to bite the bullet. Stop talking about reducing taxes or making the Bush era tax cuts permanent. And by the way, all of you who consider yourselves patriotic Americans, raising taxes is a patriotic act. If you aren't willing to have your taxes raised in order to pay for the war, that is unpatriotic.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Why is Spelling and Punctuation so Important?
Recently, two gaffs by Guilford County Department of Transportation employees made regional, if not national news, and made us look like idiots. A road crew painted "SHCOOL" instead of "SCHOOL" on the newly paved road leading to Southern Guilford High School. Also, a few weeks earlier, the word "Guilford" was misspelled on a detour sign at Wendover Avenue near I-40, to "Guiliford." This made local news; WGHP covered it on both their television broadcast and their website. But a friend of mine told me that it was also reported as far as her new hometown of Downington, PA.
This seems to be following a national trend. A writer, Jeff Deck, took his friend, Benjamin D. Herson, on a trek across the nation to find typographic errors on street signs and to correct the mistakes if possible. The adventure is chronicled in the book "The Great Typo Hunt." Apostrophe "s"s where there should be plural "s"s, misspellings, and poor grammar line the streets and shops of America.
So, what's the big deal? Why is the spelling of "SCHOOL" and GUILFORD" important? Who cares about apostrophe "s"s anyway, you might be thinking. There are more important things to worry about. Everybody knows what is meant, right?
The point is that in no other English speaking country could I imagine that such a gaff would take place. It would be considered idiocy, precisely because it is such a small deal. If it is considered a part of a person's basic education to know the rules of the language that the person speaks, then anyone, under any circumstances, should not have a problem with using English properly. This is why employers ask if you have a high school education when you apply for a job, to make sure that the basics are covered. Frankly, to misspell "SCHOOL" directly outside of a school is not just plainly stupid, but is emblematic of the quality of education that we give our children in America.
American culture left behind much from European culture that it did not consider of practical necessity. We are a pragmatic people, and if there is no practical use for something, then we tend to ignore it, or to not waste time on it. This, taken to an extreme, can cause us to view rules such as avoidance of dangling participles to be of no consequence. In the "real world," we think, such things do not cost me money, do not get in the way of performing a task, and are therefore considered unimportant. "Who Cares?" may as well replace "E Pluribus Unum" as our national motto.
We commit the sin of ignorance combined with arrogance, acting like we rule the world while advertising by our actions that we are slipshod, careless, and don't take the time to be thorough in any endeavor that we undertake. We signal that we can easily have the wool pulled over our eyes, and in fact this has happened to many Americans, who did not take the time to read the contracts that they signed, or to understand the systems that run our society or the companies in which we invest. While poor grammar is in itself a small thing, it is an example of the sloth that has led us into the mess in which we find ourselves today.
America, stop being stupid!
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