#insanitybytes22 — Public Fediverse posts

Healthcare?

Healthcare, we deserve so much better. Like, there really ought to be some “health” and some “care” in our healthcare!

I’m relatively healthy and invest a great deal of time and energy into avoiding the entire institution of medicine. I did just spend nearly two weeks lost in a bureaucratic nightmare trying to get a simple prescription filled. I could have wrapped the script around a rock and thrown it across the street but apparently that was just a distance too far for the computers to talk to each other.

It was maddening and reminded me of being stuck in a fast food drive through trying to explain to disinterested teen agers that you still haven’t gotten your order.

Recently someone went and impaled themselves on a hiking pole. I just mention it because I think that is a great example of when someone should seek medical care. We’re still pretty good at trauma care! Having a close encounter with the institution of medicine after you’ve impaled yourself is probably worth the risk, although I’m a bit concerned you’ll come out with a lifetime prescription for oxycontin and wind up with a nasty addiction to street drugs, so even that one is about 50-50 in my book.

In case nobody noticed I’m a bit of a cynic and pretty jaded about life in general, but that’s not really what’s driving my post today. I think it’s a bit like dreaming of 2026 and expecting to see flying cars by now, but sorry, best I can do is offer you some leeches and bloodletting.

Recently Bernie Sanders did his usual meme about “Medicare for all” and how many lives it will allegedly save. Right, because who doesn’t want to spend their entire life paying premiums for insurance that covers so little you need four other insurance policies to back it up? If I wanted to help the American people I sure wouldn’t condemn them to spending all day talking to someone from New Jersey who doesn’t speak English very well and wondering if perhaps the African Prince you hung up on last week might have had better financial integrity!

And of course, people are too emotional about the issue to pause for a moment and ask, wait, why isn’t Bernie offering us congressional healthcare? Why is he trying to foist the lowest form of healthcare that cost us the most in premiums and copays and covers the least amount of services? Do you know that poor people, seniors on Medicare, often have to apply for state Medicaid charity programs just to help them pay the premiums and copays on their Medicare?

Also, which Medicare? It’s got at least four parts now, A, B, C, D.

Medicare for all is a bit like saying foodstamps for all. Sounds kind of generous until you dig a little deeper as realize your congresscritter is trying to bless you with extreme poverty that makes buying basic food challenging? Wut?!

A bit funny, I pay cash for my prescription, 20 bucks. You know what my share of the copay is with insurance? 42 dollars. Yep, it costs more. Make that make sense.

Now see, I didn’t even want to talk about money, deductibles, copays, and insurance premiums, but that is what we’ve made “healthcare” into. It has almost nothing to do with people’s “health” or their “care,” it’s all about money, insurance, bureaucracy, and the pharmaceutical industry. We’re not trying to make people healthy or keep them healthy, we ‘re trying to fund insurance companies, fund the government, and apparently fund a whole lot of schemers and scammers.

And honestly much what we’re doing to people in the name of “healthcare” isn’t healthy and it isn’t caring.

Healthcare?

Healthcare, we deserve so much better. Like, there really ought to be some “health” and some “care” in our healthcare!

I’m relatively healthy and invest a great deal of time and energy into avoiding the entire institution of medicine. I did just spend nearly two weeks lost in a bureaucratic nightmare trying to get a simple prescription filled. I could have wrapped the script around a rock and thrown it across the street but apparently that was just a distance too far for the computers to talk to each other.

It was maddening and reminded me of being stuck in a fast food drive through trying to explain to disinterested teen agers that you still haven’t gotten your order.

Recently someone went and impaled themselves on a hiking pole. I just mention it because I think that is a great example of when someone should seek medical care. We’re still pretty good at trauma care! Having a close encounter with the institution of medicine after you’ve impaled yourself is probably worth the risk, although I’m a bit concerned you’ll come out with a lifetime prescription for oxycontin and wind up with a nasty addiction to street drugs, so even that one is about 50-50 in my book.

In case nobody noticed I’m a bit of a cynic and pretty jaded about life in general, but that’s not really what’s driving my post today. I think it’s a bit like dreaming of 2026 and expecting to see flying cars by now, but sorry, best I can do is offer you some leeches and bloodletting.

Recently Bernie Sanders did his usual meme about “Medicare for all” and how many lives it will allegedly save. Right, because who doesn’t want to spend their entire life paying premiums for insurance that covers so little you need four other insurance policies to back it up? If I wanted to help the American people I sure wouldn’t condemn them to spending all day talking to someone from New Jersey who doesn’t speak English very well and wondering if perhaps the African Prince you hung up on last week might have had better financial integrity!

And of course, people are too emotional about the issue to pause for a moment and ask, wait, why isn’t Bernie offering us congressional healthcare? Why is he trying to foist the lowest form of healthcare that cost us the most in premiums and copays and covers the least amount of services? Do you know that poor people, seniors on Medicare, often have to apply for state Medicaid charity programs just to help them pay the premiums and copays on their Medicare?

Also, which Medicare? It’s got at least four parts now, A, B, C, D.

Medicare for all is a bit like saying foodstamps for all. Sounds kind of generous until you dig a little deeper as realize your congresscritter is trying to bless you with extreme poverty that makes buying basic food challenging? Wut?!

A bit funny, I pay cash for my prescription, 20 bucks. You know what my share of the copay is with insurance? 42 dollars. Yep, it costs more. Make that make sense.

Now see, I didn’t even want to talk about money, deductibles, copays, and insurance premiums, but that is what we’ve made “healthcare” into. It has almost nothing to do with people’s “health” or their “care,” it’s all about money, insurance, bureaucracy, and the pharmaceutical industry. We’re not trying to make people healthy or keep them healthy, we ‘re trying to fund insurance companies, fund the government, and apparently fund a whole lot of schemers and scammers.

And honestly much what we’re doing to people in the name of “healthcare” isn’t healthy and it isn’t caring.

Minnesota Starvation Experiment

Back in 1944, Ancel Keys conducted an experiment on the psychology of hunger called, “The Biology of Human Starvation.” There’s a lot to be learned from that study, starting with the fact that Ancel Keys was a really creepy dude. Not very kind of me perhaps, but I suspect some of his experiments would not be allowed today and raise some serious questions about his ethics.

Many of the “human guinea pigs” were actually conscientious objectors provided an alternative to military combat service, so 36 young men were selected. The goal was to starve them until they lost about 25% of their body weight.

There’s a lot going on within this study, but one interesting part is that they began with 3,200 calories a day, reduced it to about 1600, and eventually 2000. What makes it interesting is that’s not all that restrictive. They weren’t starved as in completely deprived of food. They were fed a few meals a day and a whole lot of it, potatoes, bread, pasta.

What happened is that they all went mad. What I mean is that they developed depression, anxiety, irritability, social withdrawal, fatigue, apathy, and became completely obsessed with food. One man actually went and cut off three of his fingers!

They also discovered that metabolic slowdown is real. We’re designed to survive so if we don’t get enough calories, we hang on tightly to what we got and stop expelling so much energy. And also, caloric deprivation alters human behavior and personality.

Mental health took much longer to stabilize than physical weight.

What triggered this post was a little meme somebody posted about being a 33 yr old teenager still packing himself a lunch that amounts to, a Red Bull and an Uncrustable. It’s just a silly meme, but experience has taught me there’s actually a lot of truth in that diet. Young people especially, are eating utter rubbish in the US and trying to glean some of their missing nutrients from energy drinks.

No shaming intended either! One can have junk food once in a while, it’s just that our brain also needs some legit fuel once in a while. A good amount of the stuff we are eating can hardly even be classified as “food.”

I’ve banged my head on this brick wall for a good 30 years now, which amounts to nothing more than trying to gently whisper to anyone who would listen, you need to eat some real food. Young bodies are often incredibly resilient to all the crap we subject them to, but what isn’t resilient at all even in youth, is our brains, our mental health.

If a Red Bull and a Uncrustable is considered an actual meal, than we are literally starving ourselves. It should come as no surprise that culturally we are also now suffering from record breaking levels of anxiety, depression, apathy, irritability, and social withdrawal.

Food and good nutrition are tightly connected to our mental health. It’s not the only factor, but it is a powerful one.

Minnesota Starvation Experiment

Back in 1944, Ancel Keys conducted an experiment on the psychology of hunger called, “The Biology of Human Starvation.” There’s a lot to be learned from that study, starting with the fact that Ancel Keys was a really creepy dude. Not very kind of me perhaps, but I suspect some of his experiments would not be allowed today and raise some serious questions about his ethics.

Many of the “human guinea pigs” were actually conscientious objectors provided an alternative to military combat service, so 36 young men were selected. The goal was to starve them until they lost about 25% of their body weight.

There’s a lot going on within this study, but one interesting part is that they began with 3,200 calories a day, reduced it to about 1600, and eventually 2000. What makes it interesting is that’s not all that restrictive. They weren’t starved as in completely deprived of food. They were fed a few meals a day and a whole lot of it, potatoes, bread, pasta.

What happened is that they all went mad. What I mean is that they developed depression, anxiety, irritability, social withdrawal, fatigue, apathy, and became completely obsessed with food. One man actually went and cut off three of his fingers!

They also discovered that metabolic slowdown is real. We’re designed to survive so if we don’t get enough calories, we hang on tightly to what we got and stop expelling so much energy. And also, caloric deprivation alters human behavior and personality.

Mental health took much longer to stabilize than physical weight.

What triggered this post was a little meme somebody posted about being a 33 yr old teenager still packing himself a lunch that amounts to, a Red Bull and an Uncrustable. It’s just a silly meme, but experience has taught me there’s actually a lot of truth in that diet. Young people especially, are eating utter rubbish in the US and trying to glean some of their missing nutrients from energy drinks.

No shaming intended either! One can have junk food once in a while, it’s just that our brain also needs some legit fuel once in a while. A good amount of the stuff we are eating can hardly even be classified as “food.”

I’ve banged my head on this brick wall for a good 30 years now, which amounts to nothing more than trying to gently whisper to anyone who would listen, you need to eat some real food. Young bodies are often incredibly resilient to all the crap we subject them to, but what isn’t resilient at all even in youth, is our brains, our mental health.

If a Red Bull and a Uncrustable is considered an actual meal, than we are literally starving ourselves. It should come as no surprise that culturally we are also now suffering from record breaking levels of anxiety, depression, apathy, irritability, and social withdrawal.

Food and good nutrition are tightly connected to our mental health. It’s not the only factor, but it is a powerful one.

Eat Your Own Dumb Cake!

Cake Theory, The Most Dangerous Social Dynamic in Your life.

A bit amusing, this little video above really peeved me. Color me, not impressed. Exceedingly annoyed might be more accurate!

I used to be much more forgiving, much more willing to compromise, much more interested in preventing division and preserving unity. Not anymore!

Can’t we all just get along? No, no we cannot.

I’m quite content to eat my own tiny sliver of cake all alone, thank you very much.

“Cake theory” is not the most dangerous social dynamic in my life. The most dangerous social dynamic in my life is being forced to comply, conform, or deny some major divisions that are major divisions for darn good reason!

I realize COVID scared people and social media amplified everything, so some people lost their dang minds. I’m plumb full of empathy, but if you were one of those people shrieking about how the unvaccinated needed to be thrown in jail and refused medical care, nope, we can’t be friends now.

We can coexist in the world, but I sure don’t need you in my circle.

There are numerous other examples, Israel/Palestine, Transgender mandates in the ladies room, Russia/Ukraine, Socialism, that all have one thing in common, my trust was violated. The scales were plucked from my eyes. It’s one thing to have a difference of opinion. It’s an entirely different matter to wish death upon your enemies.

I’d rather cut my cake into a million tiny slivers and walk away with a crumb then put up with the likes of that rubbish.

That’s what’s wrong with this whole “Cake” video. It acts like we’re just disagreeing over drapery styles or something. We all lost our minds, mistakes were made, social media amplifies emotions, mutual compromises are necessary……uh, nope. Don’t care!

Even if the disagreements were about something as silly as drapery styles the fact that some people seem to believe an appropriate response to disagreement is threatening violence, calling for dissenters to be jailed, rioting in the streets, setting fires, doxxing people, using their position of power to intimidate and silence people, makes any potential chances of cake sharing null and void. Those were all actions that violated trust.

So, it’s a huge “nope” from me. I want no part of any of that.

Have I not commanded you?

 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” -Joshua 1:9

This verse always makes me laugh, along with all the admonishments to not faint. God knows us well, we’re a bunch of panicans.

I happen to frequently be discouraged, dismayed, and prone to faint away in despair. I’ve long wanted a fainting couch and some smelling salts simply for spiritual reasons. I would do very well in a proper Victorian novel, wasting away from the arsenic in my wallpaper.

This sweet pastor once pointed out that you can’t be brave if you aren’t first afraid. Someone who is brave without any awareness of the risks or fear of failure is just a fool. Alas, I am not a fool, although given my remarkable ability to overthink absolutely everything, I do envy fools sometimes! What a blessing it must be to have absolutely nothing going on in your head.

I jest a wee bit, but I’m quite serious. The next time I encounter a complete fool, rather than being dismayed, I should look at them with wonder, curiosity, and awe. Apparently they walk around with nothing but an empty box in their attic!

People are without excuse. We are all without excuse. Occasionally a ball comes at you from out in left field somewhere and whacks you in the head, which is not your fault at all, but for the most part we bring our own miseries……and consequences upon ourselves. I feel the need to say this because I am so tired of excuses, of state sponsored victimhood, of chronic and perpetual “poor me” syndrome.

“Project Hail Mary”

“Project Hail Mary,” 2026, was a surprisingly delightful movie. These days my expectations are often so low, I was quite caught off guard. Did not see that coming.

Not that anybody cares, but Ryan Gosling is not really my favorite actor. This role was just perfect for him, brought out all his best qualities, and made him an almost endearing character.

This is Sci/Fi, so basically this guy wakes up alone on a spaceship, having no idea who he is, how he got there, why he is even there, or how he is ever going to get himself out of there! That made me laugh because not only is it a great way to start a story, it’s kind of a philosophical analogy for life itself.

Who am I? Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? And for goodness sakes, how do I get myself out of this situation?

“Project Hail Mary” is a 2021 novel by Andy Weir. I never read it, but from what I understand the novel is probably more adult than the movie. The movie added some comedic elements and lightened up the whole atmosphere. It’s quite a bit more grown up than say, “ET,” but still kind of a wholesome family movie. I really enjoyed it. Currently available on Amazon Prime.

“Project Hail Mary”

“Project Hail Mary,” 2026, was a surprisingly delightful movie. These days my expectations are often so low, I was quite caught off guard. Did not see that coming.

Not that anybody cares, but Ryan Gosling is not really my favorite actor. This role was just perfect for him, brought out all his best qualities, and made him an almost endearing character.

This is Sci/Fi, so basically this guy wakes up alone on a spaceship, having no idea who he is, how he got there, why he is even there, or how he is ever going to get himself out of there! That made me laugh because not only is it a great way to start a story, it’s kind of a philosophical analogy for life itself.

Who am I? Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? And for goodness sakes, how do I get myself out of this situation?

“Project Hail Mary” is a 2021 novel by Andy Weir. I never read it, but from what I understand the novel is probably more adult than the movie. The movie added some comedic elements and lightened up the whole atmosphere. It’s quite a bit more grown up than say, “ET,” but still kind of a wholesome family movie. I really enjoyed it. Currently available on Amazon Prime.

A Socialist State of Mind?

Darkly humorous, sometimes I’ll be listening to some radical leftist talk about the, “soul sucking, exploitation of mindless greed that treats human beings like disposable wage slaves owned by a bunch of fat cat elitists” and I’ll be like heck yeah, you tell ’em!

We’re in agreement for a few blissful moments and then it all starts to go awry fast. Once they’ve identified the nature of the problem, and I’m in agreement, they proceed to prescribe the completely wrong solution. Allegedly the only way to fix this mess is to just, “dismantle the entire system and usher in socialist utopia.”

Wait, wut?!

I’m just over here going, Wow people, way to make a bad situation worse! I know it’s been said a million times but the problem with socialism is that it never works. Not ever! We have fact based evidence of that truth. We have historical data. We have far too many early graves. See, the problem is perceived (imagined) scarcity and human greed. That’s what drives the “soul sucking exploitation of wage slaves” and that’s what drives socialism. You can change the entire system, but you cannot change the nature of human beings.

For an analogy, let the record show I live in one of the darkest blue dots within a blue state, ruled almost exclusively by liberals who are either outright socialists, socialists at heart, or socialists in the closet. We care so, so much about the poor, downtrodden and homeless here that a good 8 bucks out of every thousand we spend on the Homeless Industrial Complex actually gets spent on people in need. You read that right. Socialism is bloody expensive. Lots of fingers in that pot “helping” it to trickle down to where it needs to go.

Don’t even get me started about the food bank. People work hard, they volunteer, they spend their entire lives giving to all these ungrateful poor people, don’t they deserve a little something in return for their efforts?? A couple of those donations, maybe? Kind of a running joke in my neighborhood, nobody has seen food bank cheese and peanut butter in decades.

I don’t wish to knock down the entire Poverty Industrial complex, but I learned long ago that it’s actually the poor who are the real commodity. Not the cheese, you.

A bit funny, the mindless leftist I mention at the start of this post with his narrative about “soul sucking exploitation” has no idea who I am or what he might be dealing with. He’s not actually the “radical” in this conversation. In fact, he sounds so much like everyone else in this neck of the woods, I’ve just made him into an easy caricature for the purpose of this tale.

Another way you can tell I live in a socialist state is how run down everything is, nothing works, infrastructure is failing or non existent, potholes in the road, and there’s evidence of 3rd world poverty everywhere. When leftists start talking to me about socialism I so want to just point them to a window. Here, look outside! We’ve arrived. Behold, the joys of your socialist utopia.

Of course I never get that far. Challenging socialist fantasies is like trying to take away someone’s hope, someone’s dream, someone’s worldview. They tend to not respond in a debate worthy manner. They aren’t interested in sharing ideas, they’re very reactionary.

It’s a vicious cycle too, because the more the government steps in to intervene, the more taxes and regulations they levy in order to hinder business, tip those scales and select winners and losers, the more dysfunctional capitalism becomes. Now we’re all forced to live in some weird hybrid more akin to crony capitalism than a free market. The more dysfunctional capitalism becomes, the more appealing socialism gets.

You know how Obamacare was going to deliver “free healthcare” to everyone and now we’re all trapped in this bureaucratic nightmare where your insurance premiums are completely unaffordable and your deductible exceeds you income? Yeah, that’s socialism.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

I know, I know, this is an icky “conservative” thing to say, but the solution to that “soul sucking exploitation” we find ourselves in is to get the government’s foot off everyone’s neck. Limit their power and root out the corruption. Fire everyone who uses the public coffers as their personal feed trough. Put as much of the method and means of production as possible in the hands of the people.

That’s the most effective way to protect yourself from human nature, perceived scarcity and greed.

A Socialist State of Mind?

Darkly humorous, sometimes I’ll be listening to some radical leftist talk about the, “soul sucking, exploitation of mindless greed that treats human beings like disposable wage slaves owned by a bunch of fat cat elitists” and I’ll be like heck yeah, you tell ’em!

We’re in agreement for a few blissful moments and then it all starts to go awry fast. Once they’ve identified the nature of the problem, and I’m in agreement, they proceed to prescribe the completely wrong solution. Allegedly the only way to fix this mess is to just, “dismantle the entire system and usher in socialist utopia.”

Wait, wut?!

I’m just over here going, Wow people, way to make a bad situation worse! I know it’s been said a million times but the problem with socialism is that it never works. Not ever! We have fact based evidence of that truth. We have historical data. We have far too many early graves. See, the problem is perceived (imagined) scarcity and human greed. That’s what drives the “soul sucking exploitation of wage slaves” and that’s what drives socialism. You can change the entire system, but you cannot change the nature of human beings.

For an analogy, let the record show I live in one of the darkest blue dots within a blue state, ruled almost exclusively by liberals who are either outright socialists, socialists at heart, or socialists in the closet. We care so, so much about the poor, downtrodden and homeless here that a good 8 bucks out of every thousand we spend on the Homeless Industrial Complex actually gets spent on people in need. You read that right. Socialism is bloody expensive. Lots of fingers in that pot “helping” it to trickle down to where it needs to go.

Don’t even get me started about the food bank. People work hard, they volunteer, they spend their entire lives giving to all these ungrateful poor people, don’t they deserve a little something in return for their efforts?? A couple of those donations, maybe? Kind of a running joke in my neighborhood, nobody has seen food bank cheese and peanut butter in decades.

I don’t wish to knock down the entire Poverty Industrial complex, but I learned long ago that it’s actually the poor who are the real commodity. Not the cheese, you.

A bit funny, the mindless leftist I mention at the start of this post with his narrative about “soul sucking exploitation” has no idea who I am or what he might be dealing with. He’s not actually the “radical” in this conversation. In fact, he sounds so much like everyone else in this neck of the woods, I’ve just made him into an easy caricature for the purpose of this tale.

Another way you can tell I live in a socialist state is how run down everything is, nothing works, infrastructure is failing or non existent, potholes in the road, and there’s evidence of 3rd world poverty everywhere. When leftists start talking to me about socialism I so want to just point them to a window. Here, look outside! We’ve arrived. Behold, the joys of your socialist utopia.

Of course I never get that far. Challenging socialist fantasies is like trying to take away someone’s hope, someone’s dream, someone’s worldview. They tend to not respond in a debate worthy manner. They aren’t interested in sharing ideas, they’re very reactionary.

It’s a vicious cycle too, because the more the government steps in to intervene, the more taxes and regulations they levy in order to hinder business, tip those scales and select winners and losers, the more dysfunctional capitalism becomes. Now we’re all forced to live in some weird hybrid more akin to crony capitalism than a free market. The more dysfunctional capitalism becomes, the more appealing socialism gets.

You know how Obamacare was going to deliver “free healthcare” to everyone and now we’re all trapped in this bureaucratic nightmare where your insurance premiums are completely unaffordable and your deductible exceeds you income? Yeah, that’s socialism.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

I know, I know, this is an icky “conservative” thing to say, but the solution to that “soul sucking exploitation” we find ourselves in is to get the government’s foot off everyone’s neck. Limit their power and root out the corruption. Fire everyone who uses the public coffers as their personal feed trough. Put as much of the method and means of production as possible in the hands of the people.

That’s the most effective way to protect yourself from human nature, perceived scarcity and greed.

John Lennox on AI?

I really enjoyed “Diary of a Ceo’s” Steven Bartlett interviewing John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics and also President of the, “Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics” the other day. The link to that podcast is right here.

(All in good fun, it’s probably the Oxford “centre,” but I’m hopelessly American.)

“Diary of a Ceo” is already an interesting podcast that has some really good guests on who I am actually interested in. Also, Steven is a good interviewer, he usually doesn’t talk over people or get all strident. The show has gotten ten times more interesting since Steven started exploring Christianity, asking questions, as we say. He is somewhat agnostic, which is also really refreshing.

John Lennox is charming, too. He’s written many books and I regret to say I have not read a single one. I have however, enjoyed many of his lectures and interviews. They billed him for the show as the, “No.1 Christianity Expert,” which kind of made me chuckle. He recently wrote a book called, “God, AI, and the End of History,” all themes that were pretty much the subject of this podcast.

I appreciated all the points that were made and have absolutely no disagreement with anything that was said. (LOL, write this day down in history. Not only was I quite content with the whole discussion, I was delighted to listen to it.)

Something that jumped out at me was the truth of materialism, the reductionist worldview, the left brain perception. In fact, we’ve even divided our own brains into two completely separate hemispheres! As a result of our reductionist worldviews, “We now know how almost everything works but we understand the meaning of nothing.”

(Kind of interesting how the more logical and rational focused we become the more insane we get, but that’s a paradox for another day. Therapeutic psilocybin is big here and ironically seems to help some people escape their reductionist, rational worldview long enough to gain some clarity or become more sane. NOT advocating psilocybin at all, just noting the paradox. The “bigger picture” beyond our own reason and materialism seems to serve a vital and necessary purpose when it comes to our well being.)

The point being a reductionist worldview is why we can say there’s really no difference between the output of AI and the output of a human. I mean, in terms of production only, AI can create, write poetry, produce stuff, therefore it is exactly like a human. We’ve completely taken consciousness out of the equation, experience, wisdom, intuition, “knowing,” the existence of the soul. AI can recognize patterns of colors, but it cannot “see” red, it cannot process it, cannot assign the color red meaning or context. It cannot experience it. It has no connection to any Greater Consciousness.

Shocking I know, but there are some people I don’t like very much who also serve absolutely no purpose in my life. One reason why I am motivated to be civil or kind or even to just ignore them is because I believe they were made in the image of God. When we remove the Imago Dei from our worldview and reduce the world to an entirely materialistic one, we lose our ability to even explain why the output and experiential intelligence of a human being has more worth and value then say that of a lawnmower.

Lennox and Bartlett also spent some time chatting about apologetics, mainly the questions we all have, the ones that we kind of need to work out ourselves because the answers we need are kind of tailored to us as individuals. Things like, why does a good God allow bad things to happen when He has the power to intervene? I could write volumes about that one question, in fact I probably already have, but the answers are designed to satisfy my own soul. The Bible says, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” a verse I really like for that very reason.

Utopian Dreams?

I really appreciate Elon’s naive and childlike optimism. I don’t mean that unkindly either, I just mean that sometimes I feel like I’m reading the words of a small child who has no experience with the real world.

I resent the weight of all this heavy adulthood, this keen awareness of human nature in all its darkness and dysfunction, the burden of just having seen too much. Sometimes I still feel like a big sister trying desperately to explain to some boys that you cannot fly. I know you want to, I know it appears doable, but trust me, it isn’t. That ended in a broken arm and a broken leg.

Right out of the gate if you give people a universal high income, you destroy purpose, meaning, motivation, and property rights. People’s very identity is often connected to what they can create and build, innovate, and acquire. If you take all that away you’re pulling the foundation out from under a building. If you had a massive spiritual awakening, a sudden commitment to faith, that adjustment would stand a better chance of happening, but given current conditions, it would be disastrous and take generations to absorb the shift.

If AI is genuinely going to produce goods and services far in excess of the increase of the money supply, then there is really no reason for any of us to produce anything at all. We’ve had a peek into what that looks like already with rampant unemployment, people forced to live in their parent’s basement, a huge decline in health and well being, and falling birth rates. People suffer when they cannot access a piece of the pie. Simply delivering them Uber eats does not fix the spiritual and psychological poverty you’ve created.

In my state we’ve been “feeding the homeless” for decades. It’s a great feel good activity for all the caregivers, but it does very little to help the people themselves. In fact, often it harms them. Nobody ever wants to have this conversation, but it’s true. We aren’t feeding helpless people who have no access to food, we’re enabling addicts, making it easier for them to continue killing themselves even faster. What they really need is to hit bottom, to be held accountable, but those are not the kind of things that make “us” feel good.

It’s annoys me that Elon doesn’t seem aware of the fact that his DOGE, and the dozens of people currently investigating government fraud, waste, and abuse, have found significant evidence of the true nature of government. It’s often run by selfish, greedy, competitive people, trying to get their own selves a bigger piece of the pie. Fraud, waste, and abuse are the norm, not the exception. The same government that can’t be trusted to handle our tax dollars can now suddenly be trusted to dole out a universal high income??

Clearly Elon has never been on any kind of government assistance or lived on an Indian reservation. Or been on social security! What did the Gov in their wisdom decide to give seniors last year to help with the cost of living? An extra 30 bucks? Trust me, the last place you want to be is in line waiting for the Gov to provide for your needs.

I do believe that this country generates enough wealth that we could in theory all be given profit shares, a dividend check. I have a dream too, that the government could be giving us our cut, a dividend like Alaskans receive for their pipeline. America is a vast country and loaded with resources. Rather than constantly stealing more and more of our money on April 15th every year, we should all be getting a check, a hefty one. Why should we allow our government to instead fund Somalian daycares, the homeless industrial complex, Medicare fraud, fence post art, and the Peruvian LGBT grain to table program?

The Gov operates by cultivating an attitude of scarcity. There’s never enough. They always need more. They have a big debt. You’re going to have to pay up! In truth however, they have a spending problem. There is more than enough. There is a massive amount, huge. I’m sometimes shocked just in my tiny town with how much money the city has, millions and millions of dollars, but we can’t even afford to fix a single pothole.

The people of this country really need to reject the notion of scarcity, the nonsense we’ve been sold, and start demanding we get something back for our investment. So I’m morally aligned with Elon’s vision, it’s just that the devil is always in the details and the details are often far more complex and powerful than people realize.

All in good humor, but the other day I actually went to the Lord in anguish, all frustrated because the solutions are simple and life could be so, so much better, but people won’t listen, they’re prideful, stupid, set in their ways, think they know everything, can’t see the forest for the trees, plagued by envy, greed, arrogance, and selfishness. They’re completely blinded and act like little wind up toys trapped in patterns of behavior they aren’t even aware of…..

He just stared at me.

I had to laugh. God knows exactly how we are, He’s been dealing with us for thousands of years.

Utopian Dreams?

I really appreciate Elon’s naive and childlike optimism. I don’t mean that unkindly either, I just mean that sometimes I feel like I’m reading the words of a small child who has no experience with the real world.

I resent the weight of all this heavy adulthood, this keen awareness of human nature in all its darkness and dysfunction, the burden of just having seen too much. Sometimes I still feel like a big sister trying desperately to explain to some boys that you cannot fly. I know you want to, I know it appears doable, but trust me, it isn’t. That ended in a broken arm and a broken leg.

Right out of the gate if you give people a universal high income, you destroy purpose, meaning, motivation, and property rights. People’s very identity is often connected to what they can create and build, innovate, and acquire. If you take all that away you’re pulling the foundation out from under a building. If you had a massive spiritual awakening, a sudden commitment to faith, that adjustment would stand a better chance of happening, but given current conditions, it would be disastrous and take generations to absorb the shift.

If AI is genuinely going to produce goods and services far in excess of the increase of the money supply, then there is really no reason for any of us to produce anything at all. We’ve had a peek into what that looks like already with rampant unemployment, people forced to live in their parent’s basement, a huge decline in health and well being, and falling birth rates. People suffer when they cannot access a piece of the pie. Simply delivering them Uber eats does not fix the spiritual and psychological poverty you’ve created.

In my state we’ve been “feeding the homeless” for decades. It’s a great feel good activity for all the caregivers, but it does very little to help the people themselves. In fact, often it harms them. Nobody ever wants to have this conversation, but it’s true. We aren’t feeding helpless people who have no access to food, we’re enabling addicts, making it easier for them to continue killing themselves even faster. What they really need is to hit bottom, to be held accountable, but those are not the kind of things that make “us” feel good.

It’s annoys me that Elon doesn’t seem aware of the fact that his DOGE, and the dozens of people currently investigating government fraud, waste, and abuse, have found significant evidence of the true nature of government. It’s often run by selfish, greedy, competitive people, trying to get their own selves a bigger piece of the pie. Fraud, waste, and abuse are the norm, not the exception. The same government that can’t be trusted to handle our tax dollars can now suddenly be trusted to dole out a universal high income??

Clearly Elon has never been on any kind of government assistance or lived on an Indian reservation. Or been on social security! What did the Gov in their wisdom decide to give seniors last year to help with the cost of living? An extra 30 bucks? Trust me, the last place you want to be is in line waiting for the Gov to provide for your needs.

I do believe that this country generates enough wealth that we could in theory all be given profit shares, a dividend check. I have a dream too, that the government could be giving us our cut, a dividend like Alaskans receive for their pipeline. America is a vast country and loaded with resources. Rather than constantly stealing more and more of our money on April 15th every year, we should all be getting a check, a hefty one. Why should we allow our government to instead fund Somalian daycares, the homeless industrial complex, Medicare fraud, fence post art, and the Peruvian LGBT grain to table program?

The Gov operates by cultivating an attitude of scarcity. There’s never enough. They always need more. They have a big debt. You’re going to have to pay up! In truth however, they have a spending problem. There is more than enough. There is a massive amount, huge. I’m sometimes shocked just in my tiny town with how much money the city has, millions and millions of dollars, but we can’t even afford to fix a single pothole.

The people of this country really need to reject the notion of scarcity, the nonsense we’ve been sold, and start demanding we get something back for our investment. So I’m morally aligned with Elon’s vision, it’s just that the devil is always in the details and the details are often far more complex and powerful than people realize.

All in good humor, but the other day I actually went to the Lord in anguish, all frustrated because the solutions are simple and life could be so, so much better, but people won’t listen, they’re prideful, stupid, set in their ways, think they know everything, can’t see the forest for the trees, plagued by envy, greed, arrogance, and selfishness. They’re completely blinded and act like little wind up toys trapped in patterns of behavior they aren’t even aware of…..

He just stared at me.

I had to laugh. God knows exactly how we are, He’s been dealing with us for thousands of years.