Christian fantasy literature, and commentary on assorted subjects
From August 22, 2012
I’ve been reading about how much money the state of California is obligated to pay public employees not to work–that is, their pensions–and how much of that debt is not covered. Depending on whose article you read, the shortfall ranges from $300 billion to over $800 billion.
Remember, this is money that’s meant to pay people for not working, for being retired. In return for their 300 to 800 billion dollars, the taxpayers of California will get absolutely nothing. Zilch. Bupkus. For all the good it does them, the taxpayers might as well rake the money into an enormous pile and burn it. Meanwhile, Californians are in line to enjoy the blessings of high-speed rail–just like China!–and their state’s very own save-the-planet cap-and-trade scheme. These programs will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and be of no benefit whatsoever.
I write fantasy novels. The governor and legislators of California write public policy. Whose ideas are farther off the deep end? Whose imagination is more feverish? Whose fantasies are more fantastic?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the politicians left the fantasy to the professionals and tried to confine themselves to policies at least tangential to reality?
From October 27, 2015
It looks like computer technology is finally catching up to the old-fashioned seance. Which is the bigger crock?
This just in–
Some academic computer guy in England says that, in 50 years or so, no one will ever again have to mourn the death of a loved one–because red-hot technology will create “synthetic digital life” which will have the effect of keeping your family members alive (sort of) forever ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11955835/Family-members-could-be-kept-alive-forever-using-social-media-history.html ).
Not really alive. But as good as! You’ll be able to talk and interact with them just as if they were really still here.
This miracle will be achieved by mining the dear departed’s collected words and works as recorded over many years in the social media! Wowee. Would that also include a lifetime’s worth of text messages? As an added bonus, they’ll make your loved one’s avatar so it’ll be able to talk with you, with whatever regional accents and turns of phrase are appropriate.
Could anything be more superficial? “I am the sum total of all my Tweets?” Ugh.
So once again we have Science stepping into God’s shoes. God offers us eternal life, by Jesus Christ? Well, so what–we can do that, too! And our version of eternal life will be better than that stale old Bible stuff, because you won’t need to have any faith. Like, this will be even better than having a robot because you won’t need any storage space.
God save us from the banality of humanism.
Today has not been a good day. My right hand is really dreadfully painful. I am sure it is from overuse. I also am right handed, which makes it doubly difficult. Try scouring a pot with a bum wrist. The act of putting pressure on the hand is awful.
I am going to order some Chinet plates from Amazon. And of course, the water cooler is flashing the I-need-a-new-bottle-light. If I tried to change that thing they would hear me in Peru. I’ll call my neighbor, but I think he’s working today. I should be OK til tomorrow.
I am knocking off a little early, but I will schedule this post for my normal closing time.
Have a good night, all.
See you tomorrow.
God bless everybody.
Patty
Hi! Mr. Nature here.
Right now it’s snowing sideways and we’ve already got almost two feet of it on the ground, with more to come. Dig that Global Warming.
But here’s an animal that normally inhabits the northern coast of Greenland and some of the really, really cold parts of Canada–the musk ox.
The babies are cute as buttons. They will grow up to weigh 800 pounds with very sharp horns, and for big animals, they’re very light on their feet. In modern times they’ve been introduced to places where they lived during prehistoric times, such as Siberia, where they seem to be doing well.
North coast of Greenland–wow. Who would expect anything to be able to live there–let alone a large herbivorous mammal?
There’s no quibbling with God’s stuff, though. It always works.