Alma 44:5 - Liberty and Loyalty from Captain Moroni

I return again to my "gleaning" from recent scripture study.

And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us— (Alma 44:5)

It seems that Moroni, who speaks here, finds that liberty binds up to our lands and country. With the recent spate of immigration away from Syria and toward Western Europe, it is a principle that we see in our own day. Where there is little liberty, there is little loyalty.

Again, It is liberty that binds us to our lands and our country. As social engineers formulate restrictions to individual, family, and group liberties in order to punish perceived racial or political wrongs, the overall loyalty to even “the American country” wanes. For example, in what was once considered only the province of the extreme fringe, secessionist movements are becoming more mainstream through a push toward increased “states’ rights” and a stronger desire for devolution of power from larger centralized parties that see people more as statistical polling numbers to be manipulated.

America itself was always and continues to be an interesting conglomeration. Neither a nation or country based on any one heritage, it could be seen as a modern attempt at a "world" government, or a system that can govern over many disparate peoples. In theory, each family can do "their own thing" and still enjoy the benefits that liberty affords them under the American umbrella. However, that liberty has be be authentic and supported for all, not enforced just for a few "oppressed" groups and denied to the socially-undeserving and "privileged" others.

Liberty for all can and should be fought for at every turn and in every place. In the United States of America, it is traditionally considered the underlying right of everyone. It was the grand principle that God established for all of this children, to facilitate our growth and development.  Let us not so piously battle to suspend universal liberty after it was so passionately enthroned by the American founding fathers and even established by our Eternal Father. Liberty is the higher road and deserves our every loyalty.

Live and Let Live...I Hope.

After reading some of my posts, I'm sure some people think I am a dirty rotten bigot, a homophobe, a transphobe, racist, and a bad cook. All I can do in response is shrug. I imagine if a cross-dressing gay dude was pointing a gun at me, I would indeed be in fear of him. I do avoid folk that say I don't deserve to draw breath for one reason or another - I don't want any trouble that way. If I do have some sort of "privilege", I guess I have a trailer-trash "can't get ahead" way of not using it.  People must be pretty brilliant in comparison to me - they seem to know far more about me than I have been able to figure out about myself. Apparently, their brainpower gives them the right to legislate and police people like me or ideas like mine out of existence.  I say as I have always done - live and let live.

I have finally gotten to that settled place where I can write what I think. If I think people are being silly in public, I tend to say so these days. If someone is trying to make others miserable, I am more likely to intervene rather than just mind my own business as I commonly did when I was younger. People who express their hatred at a difference of opinion in violence and grand-standing are simply vile and deserve every molecule of disrespect they get. It pains me to see people wasting their time and money on things of no ultimate worth and I'm lately more likely to express that pain.  Unlike some of the up-and-coming generation, I don't threaten the life or liberty of a soul - people can be as silly, loud, obnoxious, and un-respectable as they wish and I will continue to wish them a long and happy life, if they can manage it.

It is a sad time when some people have to move around with security details for simply expressing opinions that others don't agree with. That seems terribly intolerant. I may disagree with you or think you are silly for what you do or think, but I am not going to get violent or threatening about it. I may say that your behavior will lead to heartache and pain, but I am not going to be the instrument to make sure that happens to you.  Life is rough enough and I see no intelligent reason or "right" for anyone to make it any rougher.  I hope my readers see that I am very likely to offer warnings and predictions.  I respect natural consequences enough to trust that I don't have to get involved. Wisdom has a lot to do with avoiding stupid behavior and I feel it is my place to simply impart whatever wisdom I might have to help my fellow travelers.  Everyone can take it or leave it and I won't be forcing people toward my way of thinking through legislation or bullying, just advice.  I hope to say what I think and you can go your own way with no real interference.

If this makes me all those nasty terms that young folks like to fling about, I guess I'm guilty. People can call me what they like with the confidence of knowing that they will have a pleasant tomorrow without having to watch their backs. I hope they are decent enough to afford me the same courtesy. Everyone has their own opinions and, for my part, the best policy available continues to be "live and let live".

BSD is Short for "Let Me Create in Peace"

There is great power in copyright and its licensing. Careful that your chosen license doesn't take over your life!

I am a BSD or Berkeley Software Distribution license devotee. I am also a classical liberal that just wants to be left alone most of the time. I know, I have met RMS and much of my recent living has been made from Linux, but the BSD license is the license that is most likely to allow me to be creative without fretting licensing defense.

Some attempt to say that their work has been "dedicated to the public domain" to gain peace in the creative act. I enjoy public domain works, but there is no ready way to dedicate something to the public domain now that the Berne Convention insinuates copyright at the time of production. Public domain says there is no copyright, no owner, and therefore no one can grant its lack of license. Public domain work can only be expired from a previous copyright, or a product of the US Government, which was established as a non-owner (apparently). A copyright owner can choose not to "defend" rights to their work, but that doesn't allow people to simply use the owner's work: they still must ask for license to do so.

The BSD license is the grant of license to any comer and use without bothering the original owner for such. BSD acknowledges copyright but provides license to all for any usage outside of stripping away existing ownership. The owner simply says "do what you like with it and don't hold me accountable for it", basically: "Leave me alone".

Some are enamored of the GPL or GNU Public License, supposing that they are providing a license that will cause them to be undisturbed, but that is not so. As the GPL has stipulations, laudably meant to force changes back into the GPL so all can enjoy such, the onus is on the copyright holder to enforce such stipulations, though outside of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) few do so. If honest people want to be able to use a work outside of the GPL, the owner must be sought to gain a further license. If you want something to remain GPL, you, as the owner, must put forth effort to ensure this is done. That sounds like a potential bother to me!

The BSD-type licensing allows a person to be creative and not be bothered by the hassles of copyright enforcement or licensing. This was the essence of such parties as UC Berkeley, various curriculum providers, and software authors, all of whom didn't want to get into the software copyright protection business. It is perfect for a "just let me create" sort of person!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

We are just finished days of celebrating Hanukkah and are getting ready for Christmas Day at our home.  I wish all of you joy during these days and hope you take some time to reconnect with your family during this sometimes hectic season!

I am grateful for my heritage in two traditions, celebrating God's love for us in two related ways, through miracles that we all enjoy and through the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ! We celebrate the blessing of a miracle that came to the Jews as they rededicated themselves and their Temple to the worship of God. Even more so, we celebrate the coming of the Christ who would save us from death and give us the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins and join him alongside God as a worthy heir of all things. What marvelous gifts to us all!

If I seem hard or even harsh, it is because I want to see each of you in that blessed state in the future. I want to get there as well and I say and do things calculated to accomplish this for all of us. There are plenty of soft and gentle voices, often ignored, who encourage a higher course and I feel the need to sometimes use more forceful language for reinforcement of what God and Christ expect of us. I do this because I authentically love you and don't quietly watch people carelessly prancing down low roads to smallness and futility. Everyone makes their own choices of course, but I don't want my friends and family chastising me later about neglecting to tell them about their glorious potential through obedience and selflessness! Sometimes, real love can seem pretty tough!

So, I wish you a happy holiday season and a future that you can enjoy to the fullest!

Forgiving the Offended

Did I offend some of you with my last post? Are you perhaps feeling offended on behalf of someone else like a good social justice warrior? Can I offer you some forgiveness?

Not understanding, I made a couple of turns in my life and made some choices. I was a very lucky person - I chose to follow some unspoken advice at very pivotal moments in my life and I stumbled, somewhat accidentally, upon a wonderful road and a miraculous journey that has brought me indescribable joy.  I was timid and shy and didn't have lots of friends as a young man and I can only say that, in a strange way, these things saved me from the confusion and heartache that floods over our times. So many people are searching for real happiness and true meaning - I practically tripped over it years ago and I stuck with it without really knowing what I had found. I look back on my marriage and my family and I was just doing what my parents had done and their parents and their parents before that. None of them were perfect by any stretch of the imagination but they shared with me a marvelous gift and they probably didn't even comprehend its value fully. Can you guess what the gift was?

They gave me life. They gave me plenty of other things as well, but let's focus on the essential thing.

In generations past, men and women married, had children, and raised families who went on to surround them with more marriages, new children and families, until there were dozens, even hundreds, of other men and women who can all be traced back to one couple who came together perhaps because they were following a tradition. Lately, old traditions like natural marriage and family life have been cast aside in favor of far lesser things, such as gay marriage or a purposefully childless lifestyle.  New ideas and forms that don't bring new children into the world and don't perpetuate families and the generations going forward are put about as "just as good" as the age-old tradition of natural families. I am happy to offend everyone in saying that the "new" ways (just old perversions made permissive) do not lead to the indescribable joy that I am talking about and never will.

Of course, I am not talking about men and women who are married traditionally and can't have children, so don't bother mentioning them as among the "offended" - you know exactly who I am talking about.

You will miss out on the real happiness and the true meaning of life if you don't embrace and follow the tradition. You will not be surrounded by children and grandchildren that are bound to you by ties more powerful than just biology, but by greater things like gratitude for the gift of life and sacrifice. By consciously choosing to abandon traditional family life, you bar yourself from that level of happiness and joy. If you don't like hearing this and that is the root of your offense, why not just ignore what I am saying? You can choose whatever life you like.

I am happy to forgive you your perverse behavior. However, there are some people to which you do an enormous disservice and it has nothing to do with anything they did:  your unborn children.  They deserve a life, they deserve a father and mother that are devoted to each other and the lives of their children. They deserve the opportunity to have families of their own and children that call you Grandma and Grandpa and enjoy coming to see you and spending time with you.  However, if you choose lifestyles that pervert natural families, none of this will happen. They will never be born in the first place and it will have been your choice and your fault. Perhaps you need their forgiveness more than mine. If you like, I will also happily play the social justice role and speak for these unborn children of yours.

Do I offend you by saying this? Imagine how your unborn child feels about your use of the cheap trick of offense to rationalize your refusal to give them the gift that your parents sacrificed in order to bestow on you! What a selfish decision and you salt the wound by adding self-serving "offense" to it!

Fortunately, you can choose more wisely. You can choose to still get married in the traditional way to someone you love (surely you are a person capable of loving a member of that "other" sex) and likely still have children (although disease around perversion can complicate this) and devote yourself to your spouse and kids in ways passed down through the generations before you. You can enjoy that special happiness and joy that only parenthood provides.  It is all still available to you if you simply choose to abandon perverse lifestyles.

If you change your ways and love your traditionally-joined spouse, bring children into the world, and raise them with your best effort, I am sure your children will forgive your early indiscretions. They will be glad to have you for a parent, no matter how offended you once said you were at the thought of honoring the gift that parents give to their children - that your parents gave to you.  You can have the joy of honoring your parents by giving them grandchildren and enjoy that joy yourself at some point in the future. Isn't that worth forgoing a little perverse pleasure today to obtain and hold onto something greater forever?

Doing Things "Right"

I am doing some adjunct teaching this year and I find myself with mixed feelings about it. I find myself falling into the trap of being an English teacher, as all of the work is written. I wrote this to the students today and I thought it might be interesting to others as well.

As you are now working on your term papers, I feel the need to say a few things about research, source material, and doing things "right".

Some of you seem to be opening up Google, typing in the title of your "research" and basically restating the "click-bait" pablum that passes for technology "journalism". These should not be passed off as business-grade research in anything to which you attach your name. I hope you have a little more regard for your productive output and how you look professionally.

Internet "Best of...", "Ten Ways..", or "Twelve Tips..." articles, if read at all, should be the absolute beginning of your research effort. Please do us all the effort of "drilling down" for the real research behind the surface "noise" of the search engine top results. This means looking up that article's "sources", that source's sources, and so on, until you actually find the original material on which several layers of "Hey! look at this and my obvious conclusion" writing was ultimately based.

You may find the reading of that original research difficult, but your self-respect, the money you earn to provide for your family, and the reputations of those around you deserve real insights beyond the shallow products we see too often in the technical popular press. Also, although the mere mention of sources is technically correct and appropriately scored, your future bosses (and I) would really like to see actual *quotes* to back up your assertions from authoritative sources. I have a masters degree in this subject and I am *NOT* considered a particularly authoritative source in a term paper - Everyone feels better if they see "Ph.D." in a good number of your sources and that the title of the sources look scholarly. I am not saying that ALL your sources must look that way, but you should have more regard for your work and how it will be viewed by others. Poor, shallow research is obvious and I see it too often. Good research looks a certain way and I hope you want to be known for your use of it!

Your grade will reflect criteria met and you can put forth a pathetic effort ("I figured out the system!") and still make excellent scores and get your degree with minimal fuss. That is the story of much of my graduate work. You can do this on your term paper as well, I will give you the points you earned, and I expect some of you may do this for your own reasons, legitimate or not. If nothing else, I understand the realities of higher education and the fact that it can be easily "gamed".

Some day, I hope all of us will be capable of displaying that we actually can do things in an excellent way and show that we are fully educated people. You can do this through your term paper in this class, or somewhere else where it matters more to you and your family, but my greatest wish for all of you is that you actually *do it* someday!

Breaking the Cultural Suicide Pact of the West

Culturally, most Americans have a problem with the indolent - those who choose to live off the money made by others. These people are economically un-productive. I suppose these folks could say that they were born lazy and that they cannot be asked to behave differently, but I think the bulk of people in a vibrant culture rightly reject this. As societies, we expect people to strive to economically support themselves and contribute to the support of those who authentically cannot do so. Naturally, we think poorly of those who can do this but choose not to do so.

We have not been replacing ourselves in most of the "Western" or "developed" world for a few decades now. North America continues to gain population through immigration, both legal and illegal. The tide of immigrants to Europe as refugees is the only way they keep their vaunted social programs viable, though you won't catch many politicians saying so. If it were up to native-born Westerners to keep our present culture at even a stable state into the future, it could not be done due to an inability or more likely a refusal to have and raise a necessary number of children to do so. It is a statistical reality for North America, Europe, and much of the far East that, without heavy infusions of "third world" breeding stock that eschew the so-called "value" of childlessness, presently strong nations will continue a steady population decline toward cultural irrelevance. To put it into a term, we are in the midst of cultural suicide.

Many Americans refuse to do what is required to avoid cultural suicide and such suicidal tendencies have become an accepted and even heralded addition to our culture. For example, people increasingly choose now fashionable "gay" and other deviant lifestyles that provide an easy rationalization against bearing and raising children in a culturally sustainable way. Although there are many lifestyle choices that encourage childlessness and cultural suicide, we are currently in the hypnotic embrace of deviant sexuality and its absolute desire for acceptance. However, this fact remains: if there are too many deviant people, there won't be enough kids.

It is bad enough that people choose lifestyles that preclude propagation, but now our leaders offer political "perks" to such groups and hand over our most vulnerable children to them for adoption and indoctrination into attitudes of sanctioned and vaunted dis-productivity. Every person, no matter what their personal excuse, who chooses to not birth and raise at least three children under sustainable circumstances is perpetrating cultural suicide. How can Western civilization hope to survive on its present course?

It is easy to blame others for the decline and so expect others to effect the needed turn-around. Better yet, we can look at ourselves and evaluate our own contribution to our cultural continuance. Are we marrying in ways that bring children into our culture? Are we teaching our own children the habits and expectations that will help our culture thrive? Are we being decisive in the direction that our culture should take toward sustainability? Does our personal conduct reflect such habits and expectations? Any change from our present course toward cultural suicide begins with each one of us. Like the indolent, we have little space for people who claim some exemption and could be birthing and properly raising the next generation.

In the end, we must either choose to abandon practices and attitudes that lead to cultural suicide or watch our nations and peoples fade into irrelevancy. The areas of western Europe and north America will continue on and be populated, but other, less suicidal cultures and peoples will occupy them.