Christmas Morning, 2015

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I’ve always been the early riser on Christmas morning.  This year is no exception, even though we expect a quiet house, void of the laughter of children as they open presents and chatter about all the newness that surrounds them.  We had our gift exchange and the excitement of the children a month ago when we were together for Thanksgiving.

This year the temperatures and weather are unseasonable – closer to a spring day then the winter solstice.  The air conditioner blowing cool, and pulling humidity from the air is as close as we will come to temps we should expect at the start of winter.

But still, this quiet is a good time to reflect on the ideal of Christmas.  It is a time to rejoice that we have a choice to live for ourselves, or place our faith in something larger and live with hope of a better future. As the child, whose birth we celebrate this day, grew to teach and save the world, we should remember his lessons that are so easily lost to us.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Luke 6 27-36

Gun Control, a Counter Offer

For those who would advocate stricter gun laws and challenge the second amendment I have a proposal.  Let’s first abandon the protections of the 1st amendment and outlaw every movie, TV show, book, video game, song, internet event, and article of clothing that has a gun or depicts the use of a gun.  If you are serious about changing the culture of violence, then why not start with the people who make their livings glorifying it?

So what if so many of their profits of violent expression go to fund the democratic campaigns, if we are serious about changing the culture than just making more gun laws isn’t going to do a darn thing, just look at NYC, LA, DC, and Chicago.  Cities with among the strictest laws and largest rates of gun violence.

Where is the outrage over Die Hard 1,2, and 3, the Terminator, Robocop, Batman, Superman, Fury, most Rap songs, not to mention all the violence in video games.  According to Procon.org “Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts.”

Why is it okay to allow this $21.5-billion-dollar industry to go with only minor wrist slaps when US gun manufacturers get hammered in the press and by democratic politicians on a daily basis?  By the way, maybe they are paying for these politicians to slam them because over the past 6 years we have seen gun sales soar from 3.9 million weapons/year to over 10.8 million in 2013.  I think it would be fair to say the President has done more to spur a sagging gun industry than any other president since Franklin Roosevelt.

Since it seems most liberal college students don’t like the First Amendment anyway, let's start there as we abandon our protections to change America.  Maybe Michael Moore can do a docudrama on it or something.

Immortality

There has always been talk about extending human life.  In my lifetime I’ve seen the mortality rates fall and the average life expectancy increase significantly for the developed countries.  Now I see literature discussing the possibility of increasing even further so that living to 100 will not be the exception, but the expectation.  I wonder the cost if we were to achieve this for the few who could afford the path to this longevity?

We already see the impact of disparity in wealth, the economic costs of health care, and the increasing the dependency on the state.  We don’t talk much about the magnitude of impact on the global climate of having 7+ billion humans hanging around.  Instead we blame the problems on hydrocarbon based fuels, and now our politicians come together to find ways to make life more expensive as they push agendas that will make the few very rich at the expense of the many.

As the population swells in the lessor developed countries, and diminishes in the industrial states, I suspect the problems we see in America will serve as a model for the issues on a global scale.  Will there remain an expectation the richest nations pay the poorer nations to help balance the books?  But I digress!

So back to my original question, will this increased life expectancy make the world a better place, or even make our individual lives better?  For at the end of the day, no matter how long we live, immortality is achieved not by how long our lives, but how full in terms of impacts on others.  Those who’ve made a difference, either good or bad, have found the only kind of immortality we humans can understand.