tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83537192024-03-20T06:18:45.628-05:00The White Man Blog: News, Views, and Reviews on topics of ancient and contemporaty interestPeople come to this blog seeking information on Albinism, the Miller kidnapping saga, the Duggar adultery scandal, Tom White's suicide, Donn Ketcham's philandering, Arthur and Sherry Blessitt's divorce, Michael Pearl's hypocrisy, Barack Obama's birth, or Pat and Jill Williams; I've written about each of these at least twice. If you agree with what I write here, pass it on. If not, leave a comment saying why. One comment at a time, and wait for approval.The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.comBlogger708125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-89972330495176910192024-03-20T06:17:00.002-05:002024-03-20T06:17:46.111-05:00A new twist in the Linda Stoltzfoos Kidnapping/Murder SagaI wrote <a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/2020/07/another-one-gone.html">earlier</a> about Linda Stotzfoos, who was kidnapped and murdered by a fellow member of the Mennonite community where she lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. There's a new chapter to the story: her murderer, Justo Smoker (a Costa Rican who had been adopted by a family in the Mennonite community), confessed to the murder, and as a condition of his plea arrangement he promised to show the authorities where he buried her body. This link probably won't be valid forever, but for now you can watch the authors of <a href="https://www.wgal.com/article/family-of-man-who-pleaded-guilty-to-killing-linda-stoltzfoos-shares-story/46754966">a new book on the story</a>--Justo's relatives by adoption and marriage--tell how the event impacted them, and how it ties into the Nickel Mines hostage-murder. <div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-27484431517476904382024-02-02T10:37:00.042-05:002024-02-03T12:34:10.721-05:00Ice, a major killer in the airThe title is a little deceptive, as it's always on the ground that people die, as a result of a plane being unable to keep flying due to ice. But in my recent research on airline accidents, I've run across ice as a serious cause of airplane accidents. It turns out that there are at least three ways that ice can cause a plane to crash, all of them preventable, and mostly through designing--and correctly applying (that's the hardest part)--a mechanical solution to the problem.<br>
1. Carb Ice: This is ice that builds up in the carburetor of a piston-powered small plane due to the cooling that air experiences as it passes through it. Just as water drips off the cooling coils of an air conditioner or freezer--becoming ice if things aren't working right--the wrong combination of humidity and altitude can easily cause a carburetor to ice up, starving the engine of air and causing it to lose power. Although this problem is easily prevented by applying heat to the air going into the carburetor, and all student pilots are rigourously drilled on the process, new pilots can become inattentive enough that carb ice continues to cause dozens of engineless landings a year, at least one or two of which, on average, are fatal. <br> This is not to be confused with the serious problem of water in the fuel entering and choking off a piston-driven engine, which also happened in the early days of aviation, resulting now in the highly pollutive regimen of drawing a sample of dyed aviation fuel from the low points of the fuel system and throwing it out on the tarmac after acertaining that it doesn't contain any water. <br>
Rime Ice: This is ice that builds up on the leading edge of the wing, either from a plane sitting too long on the runway during an ice storm, or from flying through icing conditions in the air. Airline pilots are just as susceptible to rime ice as students pilots are--if not more so, as student pilots are warned to stay away from icing conditions, while airline pilots frequently fly through them anyway. But when they do, the results can be extremely deadly, resulting in a loss of lift that usually kills everyone on board--unless it happens on takeoff, especially if the plane comes down in a river, as did USAir Flight 405. Two methods have been developed to combat the buildup of rime ice: De-icer that is sprayed on the wings of planes awaiting takeoff in an ice storm, and either heaters or expanding rubber boots in the the wing that keep ice from being able to build up. In one case, that of American Eagle Flight 4184 (which was twice ordered to fly a holding pattern in icy conditions), the entire wing of that type had to be redesigned to avoid rime ice from coming loose and damaging the control surfaces on the tail. <br>
3. Engine ice: This is the most insidious way that ice kills, and almost exclusively happens with airliners, because in order to get ice in the engine one either has to be flying a plane whose wings tend to shed huge slabs of rime ice into the rear-mounted engines, or flying a plane through a hailstorm, where the hail going into the engines is so heavy that they flame out, or even suffer catastrophic turbine failure. This can only happen, in the case of hail, when a pilot takes his plane into the heart of a thunderstorm, as did the pilot of Garuda Flight GA421. <br>Why, you wonder, would a pilot do this? Well, hopefully this will never happen again, given the dozens who have died so far, but in the early days of weather radar in airliners there was an unfortunate phenomenon in which the weather radar could only pick up rain--not hail--so on the radar what appeared to be a clear path through the thuderhead was in fact its most dangerous part, as any pilot who ever tried taking that "path through the storm" soon found out, when all his engines failed and his plane fell out of the sky. The most tragic example of this would be Southern Airways Flight 242, in which the powerless plane, minutes before crashing into a petrol station in a small town, glided right over an airport without realizing it (because neither pilot ever bothered to check their flight charts, and the passenger on board who knew about the airport didn't realize that the pilot was trying to make a much more distant air base that he was familiar with). <br>
This is not to be confused with a jet engine running rough due to flying through high-altitude ice crystals, which so far has't caused any crashes or fatalities, as there is plenty of time for the engines to recover as the plane falls below the ice layer. <br>
One adage of aircraft accident investigations is that every crash makes flying safer. After the earliest pilots started getting killed by carb ice, carb heat was invented to prevent it from building up. After airliners started going down with rime ice, de-icing processes and procedures were invented to prevent it from building up--and redesigned after it did so anyway. And after the extensive investigations that were required to reconstruct the accidents in which engine ice killed (as it always did), weather radars were reprogrammed, and pilots trained, to keep planes from flying into the heart of a thunderstorm. <br>
But there is one more way that ice can kill, although it's possible that it never will, because it's only caused a crash one time--and as a result of the extensive investigation into how it was able to happen, the system that allowed it to happen was redesigned. Here's how it went down: A Boeing 747 (British Airways Flight 38) crossing Siberia after departing Beijing developed frozen water vapor in its fuel tanks, which as long as the throttles were held steady was able to build up without being dislodged. As it came in to land in London, there was turbulence, so the pilot decided to allow the plane's computer to make the approach, as it was able to adust the power level more precisely than the pilot could. As a result, the autopilot demanded a surge of power which dislodged the ice and sent it crashing against the fuel heater at the end of the fuel line, clogging it and starving all four engines simutaneously, causing the plane to crash-land short of the runway--but, due to the extreme skill of the aircrew in making a landing that they had never trained for, without any fatalities. <br>What the investigators finally realized (and only after it happened again, but in a 747 that was still at altitude, so there was time to allow the ice to dissapate as it descended) was that tiny projections on the fuel line heater held the ice just short of where it could be melted; all that was required was redesigning the fuel line heater, which of course should have been made that way in the first place. And, since this has only ever happened in 747's--thus it was only their fuel systems that were redesigned--it's possible that any plane flying through extremely frigid and humid air may be the first of its type to experience it. <div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-23794596405596162062023-11-19T08:28:00.001-05:002023-11-19T08:28:14.080-05:00More Thoughts on the PennyHi, folks. I'm back again, nearly 20 years after beginning this blog. Blogs are definitely on the way out; I just noticed that none of the blogs I follow are still active. But as I monitor traffic to this blog, I see that, although it long since slowed to a shadow of its former self, readers do continue to trickle in. One of the artiles that have attracted interest is <a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-this-blog-post-i-predicted-demise-of.html">this one</a>, on the demise of the penny. In the decade and a half since then, the Lincoln Head penny hasn't disappeared after all, even though the US Mint now has to produce it at a loss. I've thought about this, and have come up with two reasons why this could be so. <br>
First of all, cash has increasingly become irrelevant in modern commerce. A woman recently posted that she hasn't written a check in years, and to a large extent this can also be said of cash. Most people go weeks or months at a time without ever touching a penny, which makes their very existence almost unneccesary. <br>
Secondly, the expense of minting the few pennies that are needed to grease the wheels of commerce is negligible in the face of a multi trillion dollar federal budget: you can think of it as an advertising expense for keeping up the illusion that the US's fiat money is actually worth anything. <br>
So, when will the penny eventually go away? I now predict that it will stay on, until cash is eliminated entirely--something I actually hinted at before, as a possibility. Once that happens, pennies will continue to have value as collector's items, but they will no longer circulate as legal tender. And even if owning them becomes a crime, few people will consider it worth the bother to turn them in, so it's likely a lot of them will just get buried. Future civilizations may wonder at these hoards. <div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-86529087381245486862022-08-06T13:06:00.007-05:002022-08-06T14:14:41.332-05:00Has anything really changed?<p>Although, as I pointed out in my last point, this blog is not attracting any new readers (the vast majority of all visits coming from bots), I owe it to the readers of my past posts to give an update on the topic of child abuse, which often takes the form of child secshual exploytatshun. I've been particularly hard on ABWE for their coverup of <a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/search?q=abwe">Donn Ketcham</a>.<br />This update regards how well the extensive policies and procedures ABWE have put in place in the years since work: they don't. Although the <a href="https://sadsaga.wordpress.com/">case in quesition</a> is of simple childe abuse of the mildest form reportable--bullying--the system STILL punished the victims and protected the perpetrators. </p><p><br /></p><p>These Baptists don't seem to be any better at handling in-house child abuse allegations than <a href="https://religionnews.com/2022/08/04/seven-years-of-sex-abuse-how-mormon-officials-let-it-happen/">the Mormons</a>. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-80791193632475216332022-08-06T08:16:00.004-05:002023-06-15T20:27:25.076-05:00Going Dark (kind of)<p> My Dear Readers,</p><p>Having returned from a busy weekend, I see that once again three months have managed to transpire since my last post. This dovetails with what I have been pondering considering its future.</p><p>Since oogle has seen fit to greatly limit traffic to this blog, it's now one of the least effective avenues for reaching an audience with my writing. I am therefore no longer planning keep up the posts. The blog itself will remain, perhaps for centuries, but I will seldom, if ever, post on it again.</p><p>I do have some unfinished series here that I'd like to wrap up some time, and of course things like book reviews will probably continue to show up here upon occasion. But don't look for anything current here. It's increasingly difficult to remain anonymous online, so I direct you to known internet influencers for your further edification.</p><p>Note: I tried to post this nearly two weeks ago and was unable to. Sign of the times.😞</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-45587533855131897042022-08-06T08:14:00.000-05:002022-08-06T08:14:02.588-05:00Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem falsifies Atheism (something I found online)<p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem
states:</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“Any effectively generated theory
capable of expressing elementary arithmetic cannot be both consistent
and complete. In particular, for any consistent, effectively
generated formal theory that proves certain basic arithmetic truths,
there is an arithmetical statement that is true, but not provable in
the theory.”</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To briefly state the implications of
this:</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">All predictions about the
future are inductive. Outside the circle. In Gödel’s language they
are “undecidable propositions.” It’s probable you’ll still
have your job next week… but maybe you don’t.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">All scientific laws are based
on inductive reasoning. All of science rests on an assumption that
the universe is orderly, logical and mathematical based on fixed
discoverable laws.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You cannot PROVE this. (You
can’t prove that the sun will come up tomorrow morning either.) You
literally have to take it on faith. In fact most people don’t know
that outside the science circle is a philosophy circle. Science is
based on philosophical assumptions that you cannot scientifically
prove. Actually, the scientific method cannot prove, it can only
infer.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">(Science originally came from
the idea that God made an orderly universe which obeys fixed,
discoverable laws – and because of those laws, He would not have to
constantly tinker with it in order for it to operate.)</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">All closed systems depend on
something outside the system.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">You can always draw a bigger
circle but there will still be something outside the circle.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Whatever is outside the
biggest circle is boundless. So by definition it is not possible to
draw a circle around it.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If we draw a circle around
all matter, energy, space and time and apply Gödel’s theorem, then
we know what is outside that circle is not matter, is not energy, is
not space and is not time. Because all the matter and energy are
inside the circle. It’s immaterial.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Whatever is outside the
biggest circle is not a system – i.e. is not an assemblage of
parts. Otherwise we could draw a circle around them. The thing
outside the biggest circle is indivisible.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Whatever is outside the
biggest circle is an uncaused cause, because you can always draw a
circle around an effect.</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If you visit the atheist
website Infidels, you will find the following statement:</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As defined by philosopher
Paul Draper, naturalism is "the hypothesis that the natural
world is a closed system" in the sense that "nothing that
is not a part of the natural world affects it."
</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But according to Gödel’s
theorem, every system is dependent on something greater being outside
the system. Draper's hypothesis cannot be correct. Because the
universe is a system, it has to have an outside cause. A cause that
is not bound by time, matter, or energy, because it is outside of all
those, and they are subject to its control. A cause that cannot
itself have any cause, because it is outside the widest circle. A
cause that is infinite in every way, because it's not a system that
can be encircled. You can call that what you want; I call it God.
</p>
<p lang="en" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Atheism's denial of God flies
in the face of a basic law of mathematics.</p><br /><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-60801933424672395842022-04-20T18:45:00.000-05:002022-04-20T18:45:19.946-05:00Air Safety Incident Website<p> For those who follow my airline safety articles, <a href="https://www.aviation24.be/">here</a> is an entire website devoted to the subject. Note how often computers are implicated in airline disasters and disorders. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-20718093900207086172022-03-15T06:45:00.004-05:002022-03-15T07:06:36.265-05:00More on computers crashing planes<p> I've continued to follow <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_Airlines_System_Flight_751" target="_blank">flight crash investigations</a>, and I'm finding that flight computers are now always implicated in crashes--even in<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAM_Mozambique_Airlines_Flight_470" target="_blank"> cases</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525" target="_blank">mass murder</a> by p<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370" target="_blank">ilot</a>, it's the flight computer that flies the aircraft into the ground--as if the suicidal pilot himself lacks the nerve to keep a hand on the controls all the way to impact. The response of the pilot when a computer starts to crash his plane is thus crucial; however, to date it doesn't appear that pilots are being trained to fight with their computers, and in one crash report after another I read of the confusion of the pilot as to why his control inputs aren't working. <br /></p><p>So definitely, pilot training needs to change. Flight simulators need to teach the problems of computer takeover, and, since I'm reviewing accident reports from years ago, this process may well have already been begun. But there's one more thing: when an engine begins to self-destruct, normal procedure is for the flight crew to try to re-start the engine. This is madness: they should be focused on finding the nearest safe place to land, engineless. All commercial aircraft should have backward-facing cameras with monitors in the cockpit that visually show each engine. Thus if an engine can be seen to be aflame, or flying apart, no attempt should be made to restart it. All attention should be focused on getting the plane down safely.</p><p>And, I suppose, given the inevitable continuation of takeover by computer, flight computers should be programmed to pull up the aircraft any time they are programmed to fly it into the ground--or at the least, unlock the cockpit door authomatically any time a terrain warning goes off.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-27994890941666696142021-12-26T09:32:00.003-05:002021-12-26T09:44:24.342-05:00The Never-dying Confusion over the Never-die Promise of Jesus<p></p><p style="break-before: page; margin-bottom: 0in; page-break-before: always;"></p><p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Jesus
saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou
this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the
Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world." John
11: 23-27 [KJV]</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">These
words of Jesus, that those who believe in him will never die, have
been appropriated many times in the thousands of years since he spoke
them by cult leaders who offer their followers the same promise.
Never mind that every one of Jesus' disciples died, typically by
violent means; it's incredibly easy to found a cult on this premise,
and, contrary to what one would think, these typically
continue <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190809081832/http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/if0_ease.htm">without all that much of a hitch</a> following the deaths of their
founders. That is, Never-die movements never seem to die, so strong is the temptation to appropriate this promise as one of eternal life in this present age. </span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But
what did Jesus actually mean by “E<span lang="en-US">veryone who
lives and believes in me shall never die” [ESV]? Well, commentators
have taken different approaches to solving this, with various Bible
translators following their leads. One of the easiest ways out has
been to focus on the eschatological context of Martha's affirmation,
and interpret Jesus as meaning, “When I return, everyone who is
then alive, of those who have believed in me, will be immediately
translated into eternity in a resurrection body.” Convenient as
that is, I don't see it coming across in any of the dozens of
versions I checked.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What
many translators do instead is to modify 'will never die' with some
emphatic modifier like “really.”</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
everyone who lives and believes in me will never really die. [ERV]</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That,
I guess, gives some room for the expositor to further address the
problem of Jesus' disciples actually dying, but doesn't really say
how that works. Nor does it actually translate the Greek.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Some
play around with the conjunction a little, without coming up
with anything new, other than perhaps to emphasise that one actually has to be living as a beliver to appropriate this promise:</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
whoever lives by believing in me will never die. [NIV]</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As
can be expected, the Amplified finds room for a couple of these
options:</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to,
and relies on) Me shall never [actually] die at all.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
Message basically combines all of them:</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" lang="en-US" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">But
I'd like to direct you to that last clause, with a word not found in
any of the dozens of other versions: ultimately. This actually
translates the final clause of Jesus' statement in Greek, </span><span lang="el-GR">εισ
τον αιωνα, </span><span lang="en-US">literally, 'unto
the age'</span><span lang="el-GR">. </span><span lang="en-US">What
readers of most English versions miss out on is that 'die' is
actually negated three times in this verse, which is so difficult to
express in English that only this hyper-paraphrase actually manages
to translate all three of them. </span><span lang="el-GR">'ου',</span> <span lang="en-US">'</span><span lang="el-GR">εισ
τον αιωνα</span><span lang="en-US">' and </span>'μη'
become 'does not', 'ultimately', and 'at all'.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
think the key to understanding this is that third negation expressed
in the original, <span lang="el-GR">εισ τον αιωνα. </span><span lang="en-US">That
is, anyone who believes in Jesus (and I think the NNIV may even be on
to something here: anyone who lives by believing in Jesus, or to
expand it a bit, believes in Jesus whilst he still lives—there
being no second chance once earthy life is over) will only be “mostly
dead” when his body succumbs to mortality; but not “all dead,”
because that body awaits a future resurrection. And to prove this,
Jesus will shortly resurrect the body of Lazarus, purposely left to
stew in the grave long enough for decomposition to begin.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">So
don't get tripped up by this passage, or trapped by the claims of a
cult founder: Jesus promised, not a never-ending life stuck in a
sinful human body, but something far better: an eternity in a
resurrection body. All that is required is that your physical death,
when it does come, finds you believing in him.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br /><br />
</p><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-8840265948910317682021-12-19T11:18:00.001-05:002021-12-19T11:18:33.511-05:00Air Safety Advisory<p>
</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I've been watching a lot of air crash
videos lately, so I thought I'd make one more post on the topic, as
air travel begins to heat back up again after the relaxation of
travel restrictions. These are likely to be re-imposed, and re-eased,
multiple times, so this post should remain relevant.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I've come to the conclusion is that by
far the most dangerous commercial aircraft to fly in is one that is
of a new design the pilots are not familiar with. This is because
today's aircraft are so computerized that as often as not, now it's
the computer that crashes the plane when it disregards what it
regards as nonsense input from the pilot. A pilot not familiar with
how to deal with this is likely to die along with his passengers, despite his best efforts to regain control.
Although the recent 737 Max debacle showed, Boeing is not immune to
this problem--but it affects Airbus planes more often, and with more
deadly results, because Airbus planes are totally fly-by-wire,
meaning that all control signals initiated by the pilot have to be
approved by the computer before being passed on to the control surfaces.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If there's any comforting thought in
all of this, it's that the airline safety business is extremely
heuristic: whenever people die in a plane accident, the response is
always two pronged: first to determine exactly what happened, and
then to take whatever steps are necessary to keep it from happening
again. If only the criminal justice business worked that way: it's
real good at the former, but horrible at the latter.
</p>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-37483122686093475392021-10-29T20:57:00.001-05:002022-03-15T06:55:02.786-05:00Another life that wasn't wasted<p> “Wally” Funk wanted to be an
astronaut. But in the 1950's, when boys hoping to get a toy space
helmet for Christmas were building imaginary spaceships out of
cardboard boxes, girls weren't expected to have any such ambitions.
It didn't matter that she was already a pilot, having taken her first
lessons at the age of nine. Or that President Eisenhower himself had
written her a letter congratulating her on her expert marksmanship;
she was a girl, and girls couldn't march in the infantry, ride in the
cavalry, OR fly o'er the enemy. And only military officers were being
considered for the space program, so it just wasn't to be.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />But
Wally Funk had a secret weapon: longevity. Having been trained as a
backup for the Mercury mission, and then turned away when there
turned out to be seven men with the Right Stuff, she lived through
the entire US space program, observing the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo,
and Shuttle Missions from afar, while racking up an impressive series
of “firsts”: first in her class at Stephens College (graduating
at age 19), first female Flight Instructor at a US military base,
first female Field Examiner for the FAA, first female Air Safety
Investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. And first
place finisher, in a field of 80, of the Pacific Air Race. By the
time the Shuttle program finally opened up to women, she was no doubt
qualified in every way except one: she was now too old! She was
turned down three times. And it's a good thing, by the way, that
Christa McAuliffe, rather than Wally, got the nod to be the first
civilian in space: she never made it, as the Challenger exploded
shortly after takeoff, killing all aboard.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />As for Wally, she
lived on. And she kept flying, serving as the Chief Pilot for five
different aviation schools. But she never gave up her dream. When the
first Shuttle flight to be commanded by a woman took off, she was an
honored guest at the launch. Finally, as the 21st century dawned, it
looked as if civilian space travel might finally become a
possibility. Wally took the money she'd inherited from her art
collector parents, and royalties from her books, to make a down
payment of the first Virgin Galactic space tourism flight. By this
time she was in her seventies, and space tourism was still a decade
off. But when the first flight finally took off with paying
passengers, it was competitor Blue Orbit rather than Virgin Galactic.
Their maiden flight set two records: 18-year old Oliver Daemen became
the youngest person in space, and Wally, at 82, the oldest by half a
decade (and it was a good thing for the record books that she was on
that first flight, as the second, just a few months later, carried
90-year-old William Shatner). She had somehow managed to outlast the
entire span of the male-only U.S. space program, AND to outlive the
age restriction. In that way she was reminiscent of the first woman
in space, who was sent along on an early robotic flight purely as a
token, but kept on training long enough to see the Soviet space
program open up to women, and became a fully qualified cosmonaut.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I was inspired to write this post when
I noticed that, like Linus Pauling, Mary Wallace Funk got tired of
not being allowed to study what she wanted to in high school, so
dropped out and entered college at age 16. With all the progress they
have made in so many other areas, in this way America have regressed:
it's no longer possible for a frustrated genius to get into college
without first ticking off the box of a secondary school education. At
the very most, he or she can take limited college classes
concurrently while completing secondary school, or complete it early
by correspondence; just dropping out is no longer an option for
bright young students like Linus and Wally.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I imagine there are a few exceptions in
subsequent generations, but I suspect none from the 21st century.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-16635259801312332322021-10-10T18:38:00.008-05:002022-04-16T12:31:31.239-05:00A review of David Instone-Brewer's Bible Contexts Series - Chapter 20: Cain's "wife"<p></p><p>Dr. David Instone-Brewer is an eminent Bible Scholar in England, one of the <a href="https://www.thenivbible.com/about-the-niv/meet-the-translators/" target="_blank">experts responsible</a> for the last tranche of changes to the NIV. He knows a
lot more than I do about a lot of things, and since he makes it easy to access most of
what he writes, I follow him to my advantage--especially in the area of Old
Testament Studies, which is his specialty. What I've learned from him, however, are generally facts and insights I hadn't been exposed to before. I don't sit at his feet for much of what he weaves into his teaching, which are just standard tenets of atheism (although I admit, some of them are new to me as well). For although he identifies as an evangelical, he nonetheless looks to atheist scholars and their disciples to inform his
interpretation of the Scriptures--and is thus oft led astray.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Dr. D is greatly hampered in his ability to gain insights from
the book of Genesis, believing as he does that it was composed as a sort of
religious fiction during the Babylonian captivity to inspire Jews not to lose
hope in their present situation, or something along those lines. He doesn't
believe that it is even intended to be a serious historical record, and
certainly not that it was compiled from written eyewitness accounts. There is therefore no apparent limit to the imaginations his mind can supply from a reading of
this section of the Scriptures, guided by the speculations of the atheists which lie behind much of his theology. And since he drinks deeply at the font of those who have no access to absolute truth, he all but admits that what he
sincerely believes to be true today may be ridiculed a decade or a century from
now, as atheist philosophers discard old and unworkable alternative explanations for how the world works, and imagine new ones yet to be disproven. This approach
leads him far astray from orthodox understanding. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Take, for example, his chapter on Cain's Wife. He already reinterprets the
first two chapters of Genesis in an atheistic framework, starting with a random humanoid whose ancestral line went back to stardust. He then departs from the
atheist narrative just a bit to give God credit for taking this human-looking animal, the pinnacle of billions of years of random evolution, miraculously granting him a human
spirit, and then--in a most unusual departure from his involvement of the previous billions of years, and in a biological process we can hardly imagine, much less explain scientifically--splitting off a half-clone which became the first human woman. He then set the newly enlightened couple in special walled enclosure he called Eden
and commanded them not to eat a certain fruit. They did so regardless, and as a
result they were cast out of Eden to resume their evolutionary progress without
any life-sustaining access to the fruit of the tree that conveyed some sort of immortality.
And here enters Cain's Wife, who he proposes was a non-human, implying along
the way that the host of present mankind must be descended from her.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I hesitate to critique Dr. D in any area of actual OT Studies, as he is an
acknowledged expert in both the Hebrew language and rabbinical literature. But
here he has left far behind anything directly related to the Hebrew
Scriptures to dabble in Evolutionary Biology, in which he is no expert--leaving me on much firmer ground to dispute him. [Edit: he does claim biological expertise based on his undergraduate studies, but then, so could I, having sat for General Science in Bible College.]<o:p></o:p></p>I will be interacting in this post with Chapter 20 of his book <i>Bible Contexts</i> which, at least for now, can be found at his website http://www.biblecontexts.com/. He introduces the chapter as follows:<br /><p></p><div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #4c0000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 120.5px;">If Cain married someone living outside Eden, this would explain some strange details in Genesis. It would also explain how our gene pool contains so much variation.</div><hr align="center" size="2" style="background-color: white; color: #4c0000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16.25px; text-align: justify;" width="100%" />His book is all about explaining strange details in Genesis with even stranger speculations. He sees a problem with God selecting just two humanoids--really, only one--to begin the human family tree. Although his God is capable of many amazing feats, Dr. D seems constrained by his acceptance of atheist teaching to place the Laws of Nature at a higher tier on the hierarchy than that occupied by Nature's God. The God who could split the first man in half at the sub-cellular level to produce the first woman was nonetheless stumped at providing this pair's descendants with enough genetic variety to produce the four blood types, so He needed to pull in some genes from the neighboring humanoids to pull it off. Thus, Cain's Wife. <div>Now Mrs. Cain was not a Neanderthal, mind you--Cain had already inherited <i>those</i> genes from his long-dead humanoid ancestors. What she provided instead was access to the "rich gene pool" that had resulted from millions of years of primate evolution. Dr. D uses a modern analogy to explain why this was not only sufficient, but necessary, if humanity were to survive The Fall:<br /><p><span face=""Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4c0000; font-size: 16.25px; text-align: justify;"> Cain could, of course, have married his sister – though the Bible doesn’t say this happened. It is difficult to imagine her wanting to marry a brother (especially the nasty brother who murdered the nice one). Presumably this incest wouldn’t be dangerous like it is today because God could have made sure there weren’t any dangerous recessive genes in Adam’s chromosomes. However, our human race would be very weak if the entire gene pool had been limited to just Adam’s chromosomes. Restricted gene pools often cause problems in overrefined agricultural animals or crop lines because this makes them vulnerable to pests and changes in the environment. This is solved by interbreeding with wild species to reinvigorate the gene pool by introducing more variety.</span></p><p>Here he makes a mistake commonly perpetuated by pseudoscientists, assuming that a genetic bottleneck always results in a dangerously depleted gene pool. The reason modern agricultural crops and animals have depleted gene pools, and wild varieties don't, is precisely the result of human intervention to breed out unwanted variation. Absent that unnatural selection, a fairly robust set of genes will continue to be passed on, even in a small population. But racism is a powerful and primordial urge, such that organisms resist hybridisation and generally seek to mate with creatures most like themselves, resulting in further speciation, as any organisms that depart from the standard in the same direction tend to seek out each other for breeding, leaving an even more depleted genome to their descendants. Were it not for the balancing act of another primordial urge--that of men, having gone forth to conquer, seeking and finding sexual release amongst the females of the conquered races--humans would be much more genetically depleted than we are. </p><p>If I were to hypothesize myself, I would say that God created Adam with two completely different sets of chromosomes, with each of the millions of gene pairs consisting of different alleles. Thus Eve was far more distant from Adam, genetically, than any two humans are today; at the time she was split off from him, she only shared 50 per cent of his genetic material. And if God were powerful enough to pull off forming yet another haploid set for the rest of Eve, then he only shared half of her genome--providing far more diversity than Cain could have brought into the young race by impregnating a distant descendant of the Neanderthals and Denisovans. Adam could well have carried one haploid gene for Type A blood, and one for Type B. We don't even have to split that in half again to get all three of the blood types just among their children, provided that Eve possessed the same. And if, post-Fall, any two of their children ended up with an allele that lacked the information for producing either the A or B antigen, Type O could emerge as early as their grandchildren's generation. It's a stupendous pity that Dr. D, with all his learning, didn't see how God could accomplish this without having Cain interbreed with a non-human. </p><p><span face=""Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4c0000; font-size: 16.25px; text-align: justify;"> Mutations occur very rarely, unless there are carcinogens present. This is good, because most mutations are dangerous – as seen by the effects of carcinogens. Reproductive cells are protected from mutations by DNA repair mechanisms, which make sure that accidental mutations are rarely passed on to our children. A few do get through – on average sixty-four mutations – though this is tiny compared to the three billion base pairs that are copied perfectly.</span><a href="http://www.biblecontexts.com/2020/09/science-ch20-where-did-cains-wife-come.html#F4" id="N4" style="background-color: white; color: #4864b4; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16.25px; text-align: justify; text-decoration-line: none;"><sup>4</sup></a><span face=""Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4c0000; font-size: 16.25px; text-align: justify;"> However, some of these are so harmful that they result in miscarriage – about 10 percent of pregnancies end this way. So even a small increase in mutation rate would result in a lot more miscarriages.</span></p><p>Dr. D goes on at length to describe just how humanly impossible it would have been for God to actually get the human race going with just two people. Okay, and where does the book of Genesis imply that God can't do anything humanly impossible? This cognitive dissonance would be laughable, did he not with such sincerity lend credence to the atheist hypotheses. Of course, the way heredity works now, in our currently depleted human population, where any two humans on the planet share at least 99.9 per cent of the same genome, does not necessarily speak to how things would have worked back when they shared barely half of that. We don't really have any idea what a genuinely rich gene pool looks like, as the nature of genetic recombination means that some genes go missing with each successive generation, and after several thousands of years, every genome has become depleted to one extent or another--unnatural selection greatly accelerating the process. And since this goes against the collective wisdom of Evolution--which imagines, contrary to all evidence, the gene pool at large becoming progressively richer over time--Dr. D. just isn't going to hear this from his atheist mentors or their disciples.</p><p>So whom DID Cain marry? Well, as all scholars have noted, Genesis doesn't say. And why should it? If humanity began with only one man and one woman, and no ape-men to "enrich the gene pool," then of course he married his sister. Anyone with even half a human brain could figure that out with just a little help; there's no need to state the obvious. All we need is the succinct statement of the compiler of Genesis 3 that Eve was "the mother of all living." That leaves no room for any previous races to insert their alleles into the human genome, period. </p><p>Dr. D should have stuck with interpreting and explaining the Bible, and left fairy-tale speculations to those who reject the Genesis account out of theological necessity. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-76574007750221963712021-09-12T12:14:00.004-05:002021-09-12T12:16:13.950-05:00Liberals, Conservatives, and Traditionalists<p> I've been musing lately on a certain
sociological phenomenon, that humanity (at least in the cultures with
which I'm familiar) can be divided into three distinct categories.
Now, whilst the categories are distinct, it's also a phenomenon that
many people, and groups, can be placed into one category for one issue,
and into yet another on a completely different issue, and that these
positions can change over a generation, and over a lifetime. Now, the
distinctions all relate to how people view change. Liberals embrace
change, believing it by nature to be good; on the other end of the
spectrum, traditionalist reject change, believing it by nature to be
bad; and, in between, conservatives are reluctant to change, but do
not resist it per se, realizing that it may result in an improvement,
just not assuming so without testing it first. A conservative came up
with these categories, so those in the other two camps may not agree
that they even exist as described; being probably too close to the
question to further describe one of the categories objectively, I'll
just focus my detached objectivity on the others.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Liberals tend to confuse the other two
categories, as the people within both categories will often line up
on the opposite sides of an issue, and seem to be the same. But
traditionalists will likewise confuse liberals with conservatives, as
those two groups will often appear to line up on the opposite side,
all depending in either case on whether the change in question has
passed the testing and found the approval of the conservatives.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The labels themselves can also be problematic: traditionalists don't call themselves by that title, and
even liberals often prefer a label like 'progressive'. So it's one
thing to label the categories, and yet another to get people to
accept the label that describes them best.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Another interesting thing is the
instability seemingly inherent in two of these categories. One would
think perhaps that traditionalists, who hold that no improvement is
possible over the old ways, would have passed on that belief from
ancient times. But it turns out that in many cases, today's
traditionalists are less than a handful of generations removed from
liberal who got tired of stridently proclaiming that every new thing
was by its very nature an improvement over the old, decided to give
the pendulum a nudge back toward the other side of the spectrum, and
didn't know when or how to stop its momentum. And many liberals are
but one or two generations removed from traditionalists who had made
a similar decision, just in the other direction. Apparently few can
long endure a residence on either edge of the spectrum; excepting those few, and of course the many for whom the pendulum has happily found
rest at the bottom of the arc, all are on the move, across any given
generation, in one direction or the other.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I have seen this happen over the past
generation with the licensing of homosexual relationships, which has
become official government policy in the USA, and indeed throughout
most of the world, only within the past decade. For a
long time before that it was becoming more widely acceptable to liberals, at least in theory, being part of the preference for change which their
category demands. But once the public policy debate was over, and it actually began to happen, many liberal Christians found that they
didn't really want to be that liberal after all—that here was one
issue on which they did align more with the conservatives and
traditionalists. Thus a split began between those liberals holding
tight to that end of the spectrum, and those liberals (for now) who
wanted to nudge things back in the other direction, and that division
continues to this day among the large denominations in America. One
may be tempted to think by this that some sort of revival is afoot,
but it's more likely just revealing a sociological axiom at work.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-14976195525016753492021-08-15T07:48:00.002-05:002021-08-15T07:48:59.664-05:00No, I'm not dead<p> Despite just over three months having elapsed since my most recent post, I'm not dead; just suffering from writer's block. Here's something I had intended to post before the deadline:</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There
are several questions that arise when translating John 7:22, and two
of them arise in the context of familial relationships: How does one
translate </span></span><span style="color: #292f33;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">πατερων,
referring to Abraham and Isaac, who began the custom of circumcising
their sons in accordance with God's covenant, and how does one
translate ανθρωπον, referring to the typical recipient of
that sign of the covenant, be it performed even on the Sabbath?</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #292f33;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For
the first one, 19 of 62 English versions surveyed translated it
'patriarchs', and I believe this to be a commendable improvement over
'fathers' which prevailed in the earlier versions. If a language has
this sort of distinction between near and far ancestors, the latter
should be used. The essential meaning here is that these were the
founders of the Hebrew nation; their priority in time to Moses, not
their ancestry of him, is what is being emphasized. So any word which
contains the meaning of “the ancient elders of the people” or
“the founders” would capture that emphasis well, and may resonate
much better in people groups which revere the founders of their
customs. <br />English translators have faced a lot of difficulty in
translating ανθρωπον here, because the traditional
translation, 'man,' doesn't fit very well in describing a person
being circumcised on his eighth day. In Greek, ανθρωπον is
used primarily to distinguish a human being from other sorts of
living beings such as animals or angels, and to a lesser extent to
carry the connotation that one is referring to an adult human rather
than a younger one. It is not typically used to distinguish a male
from a female, but it's difficult do avoid doing so, both in English
generally, and in the context of its use here: only males were
circumcised, and only week-old males would ever have been circumcised
on the Sabbath. So, even though “a man” was long the default
translation of ανθρωπον, and still in many cases the one to
be preferred, it is a less acceptable translations here—yet it
prevailed in the earlier translations, and persists in 46 of the 62
versions surveyed. Others have used “a person” which is truer to
the core meaning of ανθρωπον, or “a boy” which is truer
to the specific context. The unspoken back story here, essential to
understanding the context in which Jesus spoke these words, was that
Moses had given two seemingly contradictory pieces of legislation:
Don't work on the Sabbath, and circumcise all boys on their eighth
day. Thus for a son who was born on the Sabbath (counting that day as
the first, and the succeeding Sabbath as the eighth days), both laws
could not be kept, and the very religious leaders accusing Jesus of
violating the Sabbath by doing the “work” of healing a man
(ανθρωπον) themselves had, on this question, come down on the
side of working on the Sabbath. So, if explanatory footnotes are used
at all, this is the place where one should be. Or, if the translator
is more given to paraphrase, a few words could be added to the verse
to explain this. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #292f33;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
last question that I see arising in this verse is how to convey the
tense of the last verb. </span></span></span><span style="color: #292f33;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="el-GR">Περιτεμνετε
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #292f33;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">is
a second person plural active indicative verb with a habitual aspect.
This can be conveyed in English as “you often circumcise” or “you
will circumcise,” or simply as “you circumcise.”<br />Lastly, I
give examples of two fairly recent ways of resolving the translation
issues inherent in this verse; one a more strict translation, and the
other a looser one. I'm not entirely satisfied with where either one
ended up, but they are both improvements toward a better
understanding of the verse when expressed in English.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">However,
because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision (not that it came
from Moses, but from the forefathers), you circumcise a male child on
the Sabbath.</span></span></span><span style="color: #292f33;"> </span><span style="color: #292f33;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">-NET</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But
you work on the Sabbath, too, whenever you obey Moses’ law of
circumcision (actually, however, this tradition of circumcision is
older than the Mosaic law); for if the correct time for circumcising
your children falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it, as you
should.</span></span></span><span style="color: #292f33;"> </span><span style="color: #292f33;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">-TLB</span></span></span></p><br /><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-50632399651260618372021-05-12T07:17:00.006-05:002021-10-10T18:51:40.094-05:00The Duggar Disaster deepens<p></p><p align="LEFT" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
see that this blog is drawing in a number of people seeking
information on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/joshduggar">Josh Duggar</a>, so it's time for another update. First of
all, Blogspot has announced that as of July, they will no longer be
sending email updates whenever I post on this blog, so this may be
the last such announcement you get. Google continues to limit my
exposure, since I refuse to participate in this for mutual gain, so
anything I post here will get a diminished number of views at any
rate. </span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now,
on to the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/josh-duggar-employment-homeland-security-family-denies">Duggars</a>. <a href="https://julieroys.com/josh-duggar-indicted-for-child-pornography/">Josh Duggar</a> turns out to be an incorrigible sexual addict
after all, having found a way to <a href="https://www.wnct.com/news/national/former-reality-tv-star-josh-duggar-faces-child-porn-charges/">work around</a> every limit put on him
to date. This is of course a source of deep grief to his parents; his
wife appears to still be in denial (she is currently expecting their
seventh child--which, if he ends up serving anywhere near the prison
term he faces, is likely their last). <br /><br />Now, what can I
say to all that. Well, a few things. First of all, I'm glad he got
caught. As careful as he was, clearly the feds have ways of locating
people who seek out and share material online that's not protected by
the Bill of Rights. I'm rather astounded, though, that it was
<a href="https://julieroys.com/josh-duggar-released-with-strict-conditions-child-porn-images-called-worst-of-the-worst/">Homeland Security</a> who investigated the matter. Obviously this sort of crimes
occurred before HS was a department of the federal government, but for some reason the investigation of these crimes has been taken away
from the FBI at some level and transferred to them. It is a bit of
concern that a cabinet department, familiar to those in totalitarian
countries as focusing on defending the ruling party from the members
of the opposition, is now in charge of investigating unprotected
speech. </span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Secondly,
I receive a lot of inappropriate emails, with (usually somewhat
blurred) obscene suggestions right in the subject line. They all go
directly to Spam, and I never open the images in them, or click on
any link in them. But the mere fact that they are emails addressed to
me means that, from the perspective of someone monitoring traffic on
my server, it's possible that I look like someone who is viewing
illegal material. And such material could well be sent to me
disguised in such a way that I would unsuspectingly open it to
view--this did happen once, several years ago. So don't be too quick
to judge someone who comes under such an accusation. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/30/us/joshua-duggar-arrest-child-pornography/index.html">Josh Duggar</a>, on the
other hand, had clearly structured his computer in such a way as to
hide what he was doing--even going so far as to set it up on his work
computer, where he could close his office door and indulge without
the risk of his wife or kids catching him in the act.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lastly,
a brief comment on the costs of fame and fortune. When the Duggars
embarked on their public career, it was in the realm of politics: Jim
Bob ran for an open Senate seat. He lost, big time, but the fame that
ensued catapulted him into the State House, and from thence to a gig
on cable television. <a href="https://www.duggarfamily.com/2021/04/duggar-family-statement-2/">The Duggars</a> thought the exposure was worth the
opportunity it gave them to proclaim the virtues of a godly lifestyle
to the world. But was it? Less than quarter century in, it certainly
doesn't look like the gain has been worth the loss. Once nice thing
about poverty is that it puts a lid on one's ability to get deep into
certain sins. If one has to choose between putting food on the table
and purchasing an inappropriate magazine, or getting an internet
subscription, it limits the temptation. So, the riches that fame
brought to the Duggars did come with an intrinsic cost. And it was
the laptop of a political operative that first yanked Josh out of his
sheltered world and introduced him to the siren call of online
pornography, so the politics that catapulted them to fame also held a
hidden bite. It turns out that raising your children in an
extremely sheltered environment may leave them totally unprepared for
handling the real world when they are set loose in it. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="LEFT" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
grieve with the Duggars--all three generations. It looks like those
seven kids are going to pretty much grow up without a daddy, or at
least with a very distant one, adultery having long ceased to be a
capital offense on this continent. I grieve for the missed
opportunities to have done something different, with different
results. I grieve for the failed experiment in having a
lifestyle worth proclaiming to the world. But I am relieved that fame and
fortune have eluded me, and my family. Whatever mistakes we have
made, whatever opportunities we have missed, whatever failures we
have been--it all could have been worse, far worse, had fame and
fortune intervened. </span></span></span></p>I pray for Josh--that he will not be out of the reach of full repentance. And that it will reach him before his prison term begins. <p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-41632862858687329762021-03-14T08:22:00.001-05:002021-03-14T08:23:41.143-05:00A review of Contact, an alleged work of science fiction: Part One<p>I recently had the opportunity to view <i>Contact</i>, a movie that was released over two decades ago—almost the amount of time it would take for a transmission of it to reach the Vega system. I was struck from very early on in the production by the similarities between it and Isaac Asimov's famous story, <i>Nightfall</i>. I have written several posts reviewing that story, which are available <a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/search?q=Nightfall">here</a>. I suggest reading them now, for background, before going any further. </p><p>Now, I'll start out by saying that although I was aware of the movie when it came out, and that it was discussed in the Christian Media at the time, I've had no thoughts about it whatsoever for the past twenty plus years, so I trust that everything I say here will be uninfluenced by any other reviews. As I review <i>Contact</i>, I'll continue to allude to my earlier observations on this topic, which remain very relevant. Inasmuch as it's a long movie, I'll probably do this review in several installments. But, to begin at the very beginning:<br /><br />The movie opens with the iconic roar of the MGM lion, framed by the Latin motto, <i>Ars Gratia Artis</i>--Art for Art's Sake. Not a single frame of the actual movie has yet been shown, but already we are being set up to believe that what follows is just pure entertainment--science fiction. But is it? Might there also be a deeper agenda, Art for the Sake of Persuasion? </p><p>We then move into the opening sequence, which is a juxtaposition of animated video and archived audio. The animation is a zoom-out that begins with a satellite view of Cape Canaveral, tracking westward as the sun overtakes it from the east. Meanwhile the audio track is a montage of news broadcasts interrupted by brief bursts of contemporary music, working backward from the present day as the camera recedes from Earth, both tracks accelerating: the animation rapidly passes the Moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt, Ceres, and Jupiter—already moving much faster than the speed of light—as the audio track has already reached a quarter century before present, to the Watergate Scandal of President Nixon, then immediately on to M.L. King's March on Washington. By the time Jupiter and its moons recede into the background we can hear an announcement of the assassination of President Kennedy. Then, as Saturn fades into the distance, we race through another two decades, passing through the McCarthy Era all the way to the beginning of the American involvement in World War Two. What is being hinted at is that news broadcasts are traveling into space at the speed of light, with the very earliest broadcasts leading the way into the rest of the galaxy. A bit of a stronger hint comes after the disappearance of Saturn, as the sun itself blinks out and we see a rapidly receding series of stars and galaxies as the audio takes us back through the Thirties to the earliest days of Radio. Then the audio itself gradually fades to background static, as we continue to back our way through a dusty nebula and into intergalactic space, where total silence reigns. Other galaxies zoom by with increasing rapidity, until the screen becomes a total blur which resolves into the left eyeball of our protagonist, the young Ellie Arroway. Meanwhile, the audio picks back up again as background static, resolving into the signal of a ham radio she is operating, with her voice now in real time, attempting to make contact with “anyone out there.” Thus the stage is set for a lifetime of hovering over a radio, seeking not only a signal from another rational being, but, most importantly, the opportunity for interaction therewith. And we see her determination as she scans the dials in search of a response, getting encouragement from her father to keep trying—then, when she finally lands a station out of Pensacola, he congratulates her for achieving the “farthest one yet.”</p><p>Okay, at this point in the actual screen-acting, we already move from the realm of science to science fiction, because that's just not how the propagation of ham radio waves works. One does not start out pulling in nearby signals, then progressively move to the outer limits on the country, then farther out into the hemisphere, and finally, with “a big enough antenna,” to the other side of the world. The propagation of radio waves on the frequencies of the amateur bands is such that one is actually more likely to land a station a thousand miles away, than an hundred. But, not to let the facts of science get in the way of a good story, the scriptwriters expect us to believe that Ellie will start small, and keep progressing until she is at the point of asking radio operators on the other side of the Universe to “come back.” </p><p>But that's not Ellie's only goal: in the very next scene we see her asking her father, with growing excitement, how far out it is possible to hear: California? Alaska? China? The Moon? Jupiter? Saturn? Suddenly she grows reflective, and asks her dad the question only a ten year old could ask: Could we talk to Mom?</p>
<p>
Ah, now the subject of Religion intrudes, because young Ellie is asking an existential question, one immeasurably beyond the reach of the technology that so fascinates her. Science she knows, geography and astronomy she is beginning to understand, but of the Eternal State, she is much the innocent child, asking questions far beyond her ken. Here her father fails her—being unable to give her the answer she wants—because he, like her, only believes in Science, and Science has no answers to any of the deeper questions of life. And here the movie reveals its main argument. Having, at the behest of her father, dismissed the possibility of making contact beyond the grave, Ellie turns to the next best thing: making contact beyond the Solar System. And here we stop to consider the implications. </p>
<p>”Hey Dad, do you think there's people on other planets?” she asks, again in all innocence. “I don't know Sparks, but it seems like if it's just us, that would be an awful waste of space.” And is precisely here that the movie lands on its main theme: this phrase will be repeated at crucial points in the plot, to drive the message home that somewhere, on a cosmic scale, there is a sense that it would be wrong for Earth to be the only populated planet. This doctrine is never proven, nor is there ever even seen any need to prove it. Ellie simply accepts it on faith, and goes on to make it the guiding belief in her life's work, which is to search for, and find, signs of intelligence in outer space. She will run into many obstacles in that quest—the entire plot of the movie consists of her overcoming them, one after the other—but she will never be shaken in her core belief that there MUST be someone else out there—and an unstated corollary to that belief is that they MUST be so immeasurably greater than humankind, both in intelligence and technology, that they will be able to bridge the unbridgeable gulf between us, and make meaningful contact. It only remains for us to let them know we are here, and to devotedly await their response.</p>
<p>Do you see where this is headed? One thing this movie does, and does well, is to demonstrate that humankind is incorrigibly religious: everyone is forced by their very nature to believe in a higher order of beings, ones whose powers and understanding are beyond our comprehension. And the movie will go on to demonstrate our absolute impossibility of approaching these beings using our own abilities, or of comprehending them using our own understanding. Atheistic Science is turned on its head, and shown to be just another religion after all. </p><p>I think that's enough for the first installment; we are now fully seven minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour movie, and in the next scene we will see Ellie instantly transition to Dr. Arroway the astronomer, having finally achieved the ultimate in her muttered ten-year-old goal of "get[ting] a bigger antenna."</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-30275343243143339932021-02-23T19:58:00.003-05:002021-02-23T19:58:32.604-05:00Lisa Miller, a sister in chains<p> Here is the text of the latest letter from Lisa Miller, via Pablo:<br /></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b>Dear Brethren and Friends,</b></span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Greetings in the name of our Lord, the ONE Who is All-Knowing. I greet you today from the Florida Detention Center in Miami. I arrived here on Jan 27 and I am still in quarantine -- day 21 (my bunkie tested positive for COVID, so instead of being released, today I took another swab COVID test and will wait for the results right where I am -- in quarantine.), in a 2 bunk, approximately 14 x 7 feet cell which is locked 24/7. </span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">My food is served through a 12 x 4 inch slot (within the main door) which is also kept shut and locked except when used to pass items such as mail, clothes and books from guard to inmate or when we needed to be handcuffed (we turn our back to the door, stoop a bit and thrust our hands through the opening).</span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I am so grateful that God knows all I need. Even though I am in prison, God has blessed and spoiled me with rest and quietness after the experiences of being propelled through the realities of being handcuffed by marshals (I had 5 escorting me at one point!), patted down, strip searched, questioned endlessly, fingerprinted at every "station" of processing, and other such memorable actions before being placed in cell 31 of the Solitary Housing Unit (SHU) (in lieu of being brought directly into the women's unit). My God knows just what I need.</span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Thank you to all who have written to me. Words cannot express enough how I have been encouraged and built up in Christ by your kindness. Even though you may not receive a personal thank you, (I am limited to how many stamps I can order per month and I am not permitted to receive stamps from the outside), please know that you have blessed me by your letters of encouragement and with your prayers for both my daughter and me. THANK YOU!</span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Please continue to pray for my daughter. Even though I believe God IS taking care of her she still needs the prayers of His people. I miss her! Even so, I feel comforted knowing that she has prayer coverage. </span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Please continue also to pray for me. Pray that I will "make myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them" (I Cor. 9:19b), and that I "give no offense to Jews or to Greek or to the church of God" ( I Cor 10:32). Personally, I have prayed (for years) that God would put me in the places where <u>He </u>wants me to be; consequently, I know that I am to be here. Please pray that I honor God in His choices for me.</span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In His Service,</span></b></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="il">Lisa</span> <span class="il">Miller</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <b>#27502-</b>509 [note this number is different than provided on previous newsletter]</span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">P.O. Box 019120</span></b></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Miami, FL 33101</span></b></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">**Important: Please note my current direct address. If you do not use this address with my <b>correct prison inmate number of #27502-509,</b> I may not receive my mail. :( </span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Thank you!</span></b></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Also, do not only put the name, address and prisoner's number on the envelope, but also directly on the letter or card you send.</span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</span></p><p style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And an update on Isabella:</span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.eagletimes.com/ap/now-adult-in-same-sex-custody-battle-seeks-removal-from-suit/article_83fe3209-85e5-55c8-89e2-7c83a7061576.html">https://www.eagletimes.com/ap/now-adult-in-same-sex-custody-battle-seeks-removal-from-suit/article_83fe3209-85e5-55c8-89e2-7c83a7061576.html</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">The now-18-year-old woman at the center of a yearslong, same-sex custody dispute that spanned Vermont to Nicaragua said in court documents filed Wednesday that she wants her name removed from a 2012 civil lawsuit filed in her name.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Lisa Miller is facing federal criminal charges in Buffalo for taking Isabella Miller to Nicaragua in 2009 rather than sharing custody with her former civil union partner, Janet Jenkins, of Fair Haven, Vermont.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">In affidavits written and signed last month by Isabella Miller in Managua, Nicaragua, and filed in federal court in Burlington, Vermont, on Wednesday, the now-adult says she has been “happy, safe, healthy and I have been well cared for” since arriving in Nicaragua.</p><div class="tncms-region hidden-print" id="tncms-region-article_instory_top" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 14px;"></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Isabella Miller said she remains outside the United States of her own free will.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: "PT Serif", Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“If (and when) I desire to return to the United States I will do so,” she said in the affidavit filed by Vermont attorney Deborah Bucknam.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-67948936167353829532021-01-29T06:04:00.001-05:002021-01-29T07:25:56.497-05:00Lisa Miller's Legal Battle ResumesIt's interesting that it was the very week in which <a href="https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5e16b28bb338d10b3a64dae1">an important deadline passed</a> in the RICO suit against her, that Lisa Ann Miller surrendered to US authorities at the embassy in Mangua. And that this even did not register so much as a blip in the national news, formerly obsessed with the case. Not even when she was put on a plane to be rendered to the Miami Dade Detention Center for quarantine as she awaits trial for kidnapping her own daughter--the daughter who prayerfully accompanied her to the Managua airport. It's as if she is still surrounded by cloaking angels. And certainly she is being upheld in fervent prayer.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjieprcLAm6iSxa-y2agTQegEOvfMoWbwQgxvchnDKwi2GS1mlUdBbBLdjWIR58LBjd2Eg9Wfba9YZ00ivDrnKdkU1_ecoTtX76XNZCKrdoYKOJ3OaWywlLeE7-k6HvbGoPg4Jduw/s1000/IMG-20210119-WA0053+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="839" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjieprcLAm6iSxa-y2agTQegEOvfMoWbwQgxvchnDKwi2GS1mlUdBbBLdjWIR58LBjd2Eg9Wfba9YZ00ivDrnKdkU1_ecoTtX76XNZCKrdoYKOJ3OaWywlLeE7-k6HvbGoPg4Jduw/s320/IMG-20210119-WA0053+%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-14984454011610808052021-01-18T20:07:00.005-05:002021-01-20T14:51:33.941-05:00BREAKING NEWS in the Miller Kidnapping Case!<p> <span style="font-size: 11pt;">Dear Brethren and Friends,</span></p><p style="margin: 13.7pt 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Greetings in the name of our Lord- the One who is All-
Powerful and All- Knowing. I praise Him for providing for, protecting as in a
cloud pillar, and sheltering my daughter, Isabella, and I these last over 11
years as I have been raising her for Christ in an undisclosed location. She is
now 18 and free from the court rulings that I disregarded that stated that she
was not to be taught the sacredness of marriage according to God:</span></p><p style="margin: 13.7pt 0.95in 0.0001pt 37.45pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Haven't you read that the Creator made
them male and female... for this reason a man will leave his father and mother
and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no
longer two, but one flesh. Therefor what God has joined together, let no one
separate. (Gen. 2:24, Matthew 19:3-6, Gen 1:28, Eph. 5:31-32)</span></p><p style="margin: 13.7pt 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">and from where I was put on the stand for the day
concerning my Biblical conviction of how to raise my daughter due to being
accused of “emotionally abusing” her with my belief of the two kingdoms- the
kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.</span></p><p style="margin: 13.7pt 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Today, January 18, 2021, I am voluntarily surrendering
myself to the U.S. Authorities by walking into the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua.</span></p><p style="margin: 13.7pt 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Isabella and I will be walking in together; however, we do
not know what will occur, especially since neither one of us have current
paperwork. We covet your prayers with our following concerns: that we could travel
together to the US and that she could find a home that supports her
convictions.</span></p><p style="margin: 13.7pt 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In addition, I ask you for prayer specifically for me to
honor and to glorify God and for my health. Thank you in advance for your
prayers. May our Lord be further glorified in this matter.</span></p><p style="line-height: 11.9pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p style="line-height: 11.9pt; margin-bottom: 7.9pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">For His Honor and Glory,</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p><p style="line-height: 11.9pt; margin-bottom: 7.9pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lisa Miller</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></p><p style="line-height: 11.9pt; margin-bottom: 7.9pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Psalm 91<br /><br />Editor adds:<br />Lisa forgot that Monday was a holiday back in the US, so the embassy was closed. She tried again Tuesday; Isabella was issued a temporary US Passport, and Lisa was taken into custody. They weren't sure what to do with her, but she begged them not to turn her over to the Nicaraguan authorities, who are known for their cruel treatment of Timo Miller for his part in this case (as recognized the the federal judge in Buffalo, who reduced his sentence to time served because of it). <br /><br /><br /></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-22707711806932605002021-01-18T07:44:00.004-05:002021-01-29T07:11:48.200-05:00<p> I have not written about the<a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/search?q=comma"> Johannine Comma</a> for some time, but new information has come available, especially regarding the Latin transmission thereof. Here are some preliminary results of my latest research. </p>
<p align="LEFT">
<span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Different
ways the Latin textual tradition renders “(they) bear record” in
1 John 5:7, followed by their distribution in the Stuttgart Vulgate</span></span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><p align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: none; border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right: none; border-top: none; line-height: 0.22in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.02in;">
<span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">testes
(“are witnesses,“ 14x, none in <span style="font-size: 10pt;">Johannine
literature</span>)</span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: none; border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right: none; border-top: none; line-height: 0.22in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.02in;">
<span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">testificantur
(“they testify,” 1x, none in Johannine literature)</span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: none; border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right: none; border-top: none; line-height: 0.22in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.02in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">testimonium
perhibent (“they </span></span></span><span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en">provide
testimony,</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #050505;">” </span><span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">3 of 4 are in Johannine literature )</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: none; border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right: none; border-top: none; line-height: 0.22in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.02in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">testimonium
praebent (“they </span></span></span><span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en">provide
testimony,</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #050505;">” </span><span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">none
)</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: none; border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right: none; border-top: none; line-height: 0.22in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.02in;">
<span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Testimonium
dicunt (“they speak testimony,” none)</span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="LEFT" style="border-bottom: none; border-left: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right: none; border-top: none; line-height: 0.22in; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0.02in;">
<span style="color: #050505;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Testimonium
dant (“they give testimony,” 1x, only in the Vulgate comma)</span></span></span></p>
</li></ul>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />In
his writings, John uses a form of the verb </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">μαρτυρέω</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (testify)
44 times—a majority of all such uses in the entire NT. It is one of
the major themes in Johannine literature. Now, when we look at the
Vulgate text, we see that the majority of times the phrase
“testimonium perhibent” (“they </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en">provide
testimony</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">”)
is used in the NT are in the writings of John. And this remains the
case regardless of what form of the expression is used. And this is,
in fact, the common rendering in the Old Latin of </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">μαρτυρέω in</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> 1
John 5, including the several uses in the immediate context of verse
7. I have not yet determined how common it is in translating either
half of the Comma, though.</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Nor where the first
usage of <i>testimonium dant </i>is found.</span></p><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-52780422602244555742020-11-09T21:03:00.000-05:002020-11-09T21:03:46.740-05:00A Petition from the Church to Donald Trump--or is it?<p>Here is the stunning transcript of a video available on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BKFxyjCaBk">Youtub</a>e. I provide the relevant part:</p><p><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Hello everybody! Welcome back to another episode of Anabaptist Perspectives. We're </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">here in Boston, Massachusetts at Sattler College. We're with Dean Taylor. You're </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">the president of the college here. We're in your office, and you did a lecture on </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">this earlier this year that really caught our attention, and we wanted to</span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20.8px;"> </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">talk to you about that and and see if we can hit some of those high points.</span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20.8px;"> </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So, during that lecture you said—and it was obviously rhetorical just kind of make a </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">point—you read a petition to our president Donald Trump. Can you just read </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">that and then explain kind of what you're getting at there and then how </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">that all ties in with with parts of our Mennonite history.</span></p><p><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20.8px;"> </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Alright. Well excellent. OK. I'll start with a letter, and then I'll explain what I was t</span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">hinking. Sure. OK. The idea was, it was bringing out that, you know, there's been </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">a lot of, you know, negative things against the president, and, you know, we </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">know we're supposed to pray for our president and pray and the government, </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">and so the idea, you know, that all these attacks on the president that we should </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">say something. But, in that, I wanted to make a point though because I </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">was... what I was feeling was that too many of our people are imbibing—they're </span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">taking on this whole way of thinking of the current presidency, and that's very s</span><span style="color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">cary. So I wrote this petition. Here it goes.</span></p><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="88640" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">To the president, Donald Trump:</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="90420" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">We, the conference of Anabaptists, assembled today in Shipshewana and the free state</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="94579" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">of Indiana, feel deep gratitude for the powerful revival that God has given our</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="99560" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">nation's through your energy and promises joyful cooperation and the</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cue-group-start-offset style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-secondary); font-size: 1.3rem; line-height: 1.8rem; margin: 0px 16px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); font-size: 13px;">upbuilding of our fatherland through the power of the Gospel, faithful to the</span></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="109219" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">motto of our forefathers, "No other foundation can anyone lay than that</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="114289" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">which is laid which is Jesus Christ." With greatest excitement, we are following the</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="119869" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">events of our beloved country and experienced in spirit the national</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="125030" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">revolution of the American people. We are happy that, in America, after a long time,</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="130670" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">a government that freely and openly professes God as creator stands at the</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="137510" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">head of the nation. With special sympathy, we hear that the</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="142190" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">government takes seriously the realization of Christian principles in</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="147350" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">social, economic, and cultural life, and especially emphasizes the protection of the family.</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="154800" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">And signed the conference that I was with]. </div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary);">So, the point that I was</span></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="159740" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">making is that, with just a couple words changed, that was a telegram—</div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cues style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;"><div class="cue style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" role="button" start-offset="167390" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-text-primary); cursor: pointer; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" tabindex="0">that was sent from the Mennonites of Germany to Adolf Hitler. </div></div></div><div class="cue-group style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="align-items: baseline; background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 16px 8px 3px;"><div class="cue-group-start-offset style-scope ytd-transcript-body-renderer" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: var(--yt-spec-call-to-action); font-size: 1.3rem; line-height: 1.8rem; margin: 0px 16px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-28790066111301647762020-10-06T21:00:00.002-05:002020-10-07T11:19:15.226-05:00Lisa Miller update<p> Even though, as I pointed out in <a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/2020/04/happy-birthday-isabella.html">a recent post</a>, her daughter is now of age and free to resume enjoyment of her American citizenship, Lisa Miller is still a wanted felon. News out of Nicaragua is that the federal authorities have committed resources to putting pressure on people thought to possibly be hiding them, even to the point of arresting and interrogating an American citizen. To the extreme frustration of all involved in the hunt, and despite winning convictions and harsh prison sentences for all charged with their escape, every attempt for the last several years has failed to uncover anything new. It is as if the Millers had vanished into another dimension. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-29078871910972225872020-08-17T04:53:00.010-05:002020-10-02T14:00:49.347-05:00Who are the false teachers in Acts 20:30?<p> As I posted earlier (<a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/2009/11/tniv-and-leading-men-of-city.html">here</a>, <a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/2006/05/tniv-in-acts-5.html">here</a>, and <a href="https://whitemail.blogspot.com/2009/11/bereans-men-women-or-jews.html">here</a>), The Newer and Improveder International Version has a hard time being consistent with its translation of the Greek word for 'men', being unwilling to exclude women altogether from that designation, but not showing any good reason for why it does or doesn't. An excellent example is in Acts 20:30.</p><p><br />First, let's back up and see how various translations handle 'men' in Acts 17:34 (from <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/act/17/1/t_bibles_1035034">blueletterbible</a>):</p><div data-contents="true"><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="87opi-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="87opi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="87opi-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. - NKJV</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="ej8f0-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ej8f0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ej8f0-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="ccgju-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ccgju-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ccgju-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. - ESV</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="8i2oc-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8i2oc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8i2oc-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="5ra46-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5ra46-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5ra46-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. - NASB</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="ads82-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ads82-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ads82-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="8o5ta-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8o5ta-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8o5ta-0-0"> So, the more literal versions were okay with translating ανδρες as 'men', despite the associated difficulty of including a woman in their number. How about the least literal translations?</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="4umog-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4umog-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4umog-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="c2411-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c2411-0-0"><span data-offset-key="c2411-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">but some joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. - NLT</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="facr7-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="facr7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="facr7-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="250pm-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="250pm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="250pm-0-0"> Well, that was pretty safe, Just leave off translating the word, as the NIV did in Acts One. But most of them tried to translate it with something:</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="37j5p-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="37j5p-0-0"><span data-offset-key="37j5p-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="br21c-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="br21c-0-0"><span data-offset-key="br21c-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. - CSB</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="65me-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="65me-0-0"><span data-offset-key="65me-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="fisji-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fisji-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fisji-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">But some people joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. NET</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="aejuq-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="aejuq-0-0"><span data-offset-key="aejuq-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="dgk9n-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dgk9n-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dgk9n-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. - NIV</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="1i659-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1i659-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1i659-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="fjhlk-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fjhlk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="fjhlk-0-0"> So, to the CBD, ανδρες could, and presumably should, be either left untranslated, or at least translated vaguely as 'some people', whenever women could, or should, be included in the referent. So what happened in Acts 20:30, when Paul warned the Ephesian Elders about the coming of false teachers?</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="5vnmt-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5vnmt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5vnmt-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="8jr07-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8jr07-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8jr07-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. - NKJV</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="33n7b-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="33n7b-0-0"><span data-offset-key="33n7b-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="akh3q-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="akh3q-0-0"><span data-offset-key="akh3q-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. - ESV</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="625kv-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="625kv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="625kv-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="1cr6v-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1cr6v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1cr6v-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. - NASB</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="b6ahc-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b6ahc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b6ahc-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="4059q-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4059q-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4059q-0-0"> Again, the more literal versions translate ανδρες as 'men', despite the difficulty that false teachers of a female sort would likewise arise (Revelation 2:20). Surely, though, the translators of the more progressive versions would be able to see women in this verse? Let's check.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="cdipm-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cdipm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cdipm-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="1e9uk-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1e9uk-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1e9uk-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following. - NLT</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="b4pg9-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b4pg9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b4pg9-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="e5qvb-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e5qvb-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e5qvb-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them. - CSB</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="94jd4-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="94jd4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="94jd4-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="1em26-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1em26-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1em26-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. - NET</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="haa8-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="haa8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="haa8-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="b69rm-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b69rm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b69rm-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. - NIV</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="5mtr-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5mtr-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5mtr-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="ejqh7-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ejqh7-0-0"><span data-offset-key="ejqh7-0-0">Well, suddenly all their problems with a literal translation of ανδρες seem to have vanished at this verse. Despite the difficulty, all are agreed that only those Ephesians of the male sort were in any danger of becoming false teachers. But Paul himself, later writing to Timothy <b>in Ephesus</b>, specifically spoke of </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="6fliv-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6fliv-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6fliv-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="av8b2" data-offset-key="1781v-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1781v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1781v-0-0" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">"gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." - NIV 2 Timothy 3:6-7</span></div></div></div><p><span face="" style="color: #01103a;"><span style="font-size: 14.4px;"><br />Global search-and-replace has failed them once again. </span></span></p><p><span face="" style="color: #01103a;"><span style="font-size: 14.4px;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span face="" style="color: #01103a;"><span style="font-size: 14.4px;">EDIT Oct 2, 2020<br />It has been brought to my attention that (at least in the 2005 Edition), the TNIV <b>did</b> in fact read "some will arise" and this was one of the reversions made in the 2011 NNIV. </span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-60631643575126814282020-08-10T08:45:00.005-05:002020-08-10T08:49:26.214-05:00The Elizabeth Smart Effect<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Smart-Autobiography-Part-1/dp/B07Y45J3YV/ref=sr_1_1" target="_blank"> Elizabeth Smart</a> is an amazing woman. Abducted at age 14 through her bedroom window one night by a drifter whom her father had hired for some odd jobs, she spent the next nine months being raped several times a day. When she was finally found by investigators hidden in plain sight on the streets of Sandy, Utah, she had been so utterly brainwashed that, thinking her family would never take her back, she initially refused to even admit who she was. <br />But from that low point, she made an amazing comeback. After making up the year of school she'd missed, she went on to graduate from BYU and flew back from a Mission in France to testify at her abuser's trial for kidnapping and rape. Then, incredibly, she became a journalist for NBC, interviewing women like her who had been kidnapped by sexual abusers. Unlike abuse victims who desire anonymity, she has never been afraid to tell her story and in fact used it to catapult her to national attention, using that platform to advocate against sexual assault. <br />In honor of Elizabeth and her willingness to share every facet of her horrifying experience, I'm naming a little-understood phenomenon after her: The Elizabeth Smart Effect. Simply put, this is the tendency of traumatic rape victims not to have functioning reproductive systems during the time they are under the control of their abusers. Despite the daily rapes, Elizabeth never fell pregnant until after she had married her legal husband. How could this be?</p><p>Some may offer the obvious answer that her abuser wasn't fertile himself, and was thus unable to impregnate her. But what about numerous other victims who demonstrate the same effect? In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Slave-Across-Street-Theresa-Flores/dp/0982328680/ref=sr_1_1" target="_blank">The Slave Across the Street</a>, Theresa Flores relates her experience of serving as a teenage concubine to an entire underworld crime network for over a year--without ever falling pregnant. And the anecdotes are countless; despite pregnancy resulting from single rapes that happened to coincide with a woman already being fertile, rapes that are part of an ongoing abusive situation really do sometimes seem to shut down a woman's reproductive system, so that she never does go through a fertile cycle until the abuse ends.<br /></p><p>More study on this is definitely needed--but will it ever come? The political establishment, particularly the pro-abortion wing, clings desperately to the idea that women who are raped NEED the option of snuffing out of any life that results from that rape, and anyone referencing the Elizabeth Smart Effect is likely to get shouted down--or, in the famous case of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_and_pregnancy_statement_controversies_in_the_2012_United_States_elections">Todd Akin</a>, even voted out of office just for mentioning it. If there is a biological phenomenon behind the Elizabeth Smart Effect, isolating it, describing it, and publishing it will face some formidable political hurdles. <br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8353719.post-13767320300518744972020-07-13T21:34:00.005-05:002020-08-24T13:50:58.523-05:00Another One Gone2020 is turning out to be an annus horribilus in many ways, one of which is the news that yet another kidnapping/rape/murder* has apparently occurred to a Mennonite girl who was supposedly under the protection of her head covering. To add to her indignity, the one photo the police was able to acquire of Amish teen Linda Stoltzfoos was <a href="https://www.wgal.com/article/fbi-offering-reward-in-search-for-missing-amish-girl/33275120">'rumspringa-progressed'</a> to show her without the church attire she was wearing when she went missing, in 'street clothes' and with her hair down--showing their reluctance to admit to the possibility that she had in fact been kidnapped, rather than just running away on her way home from church to change her clothes--showing their woefully inadequate understanding of Amish culture.<br />
Someone has suggested, tongue in cheek, that the head covering may have a similar magical quality as that found in Sampson's hair--that is, one is powerless to abuse a girl so long as she remains covered, but if he can in any way get the covering off her, she's fair game. I don't think that theory will hold any water in Linda's case. She appears to have come under <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-arrested-charged-missing-amish-teenage-girl-vanished/storyhttps://abcnews.go.com/US/man-arrested-charged-missing-amish-teenage-girl-vanished/story">Justo Smoker</a>'s power while still fully dressed in her church outfit.<div>The magical piece of cloth just isn't working.</div><div><br /></div><div>UPDATE AUGUST 24: More information has been disclosed in both of these kidnapping cases. It turns out that Sasha Krause was tied up and beaten, then shot in the head--and both her underwear and her head covering removed and kept as trophies--but the autopsy indicates she died a virgin. That must be some comfort to her family--and may even strengthen their belief in the magic piece of cloth. In Linda Stoltzfoos' case, she has not been recovered, but some of her underclothing was found buried in the woods--indicating that she could have been raped; there was no sign of her head covering.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">For more reading, visit http://www.whitemail.blogspot.com</div>The White Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06732782601569135839noreply@blogger.com0