Between Posts

In re-reading "Hiring the Worker," a seminal book on management and human resources history published in 1916, just prior to the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918, I came across the following passage that has tremendous implications for the way our various governments (city, county, state and federal) have reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic: "What famine and black plague were to the middle ages, so is unemployment to the modern industrial world." The statement was made in a report by Professor Joseph Willits. The professor had been commissioned by the City of Philadelphia to do a year-long study of workplace turnover and unemployment in Philadelphia's burgeoning manufacturing industries. Because so much work was seasonal, turnover was extremely high, especially during the winter. As a result, workers suffered greatly. This high workforce turnover and its accompanying social disruption was common in many American cities of the time. Arguably, by many accounts it was the

Have you noticed how chillingly like Communism and Socialism are both the promises and actual results of lockdowns and remote working? All -- lockdowns, WFH,  Communism and Socialism -- have their seeds in the false promises of Nirvana (aka Shangri-la, Utopia, the "New Norm"). And all share the same tragic consequences when tried: mass paranoia, fear, loneliness, substance abuse, loss of hope, depression, suicide, broken relationships, shoddy work results and poor productivity; in short, everything except what was promised and predicted. The False Prophets of Covid-19 Better to look at the sordid results of the history of Socialism and Communism than to buy into the promises of the false prophets of Covid-19. The New Norm is not a new concept born of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is an old Socialist concept that is constantly looking for an excuse, a rationale for implementation, and Covid-19 is just the newest in a long line of rationalizations. So let's make a simple and pl

"Nor is the matter altered when we come nearer home and contemplate the heathen masses which crowd the narrow streets of our great cities. It is one of the signs of our times that the "slums," as we call them, have come forth to the observation of the world. And as they are brought more fully to public view the sight is not encouraging. Here the Christian worker comes to close quarters with vice and misery. Here his heart sinks within him at the manifest magnitude of the task that is set before him. Here he is gravely tempted to despair as he realizes more and more sharply the inadequacy of human methods and human powers to reach the root of the evil whose dreadful fruits daily smite him in the face. How easy it is to let the great hope die within us and seek to content ourselves with some lesser endeavor! This immense mass of corrupting humanity — we cannot lift it bodily to a higher plane. Shall we not be satisfied to attack the fringes of the evil, and be content wit

 

One of the incontrovertibly immutable attributes of the human nature is Gathering. Arguably, Gathering also is one of the Communicable Attributes of God; if not an actual attribute, or one that stands on its own, then certainly one that is implicitly part of, or derived from, the communicable attributes of God—love, goodness, justice, righteousness, wisdom. None of those Godly attributes are applicable in isolation; they are meaningful only where two or more people are Gathered. Without a Gathering, there is only a Subject in our sentence; the Object does not exist. Without a Gathering, there is no object of love, justice, goodness or righteousness, thus rendering those attributes of our nature meaningless. Whether it is two of us (as in Adam and Eve) or 2 billion of us, our norm—our deep desire—is to Gather. You might say that, unlike Covid-19, which is Pandemic, Gathering is Endemic: it is ever-present in all geographical locations, among all peoples, at all times. We are infected by

I don't see how this is any different than a bunch of people with Houston Texans flags on their vehicles "escorting" a Jacksonville Jaguars bus from the stadium. Nobody tried to run the bus off the road. Nobody threw anything or shot at the bus. Nobody tried to impede the progress of the bus. The Biden Campaign is probably green with envy because Biden supporters don't have the enthusiasm to do something like this. Or maybe they disapprove because, after all, the Democrats are the party of violence and intimidation, thus they are incapable of distinguishing non-threatening behavior from violent protests. If Joe and his ilk cannot handle good-natured hazing, as it were, how the hell is he going to handle China, Russia, or North Korea? Oh, sorry, I already know the answer to that: he won't run them out of town, he will take hush money to leave them to their wicked devices. Maybe the folks in the Biden bus should have pulled off the road and demanded money from the T

Let's bail out the blue states and cities, but let's make it conditional.  I'm okay with one final round of Stimulus spending during the Covid-19 crisis, but only if the only item in the bill is bailout money for bankrupt states and cities, with the following conditions attached... "In return for federal funds to resolve the insolvency or budget shortcomings of a State or Municipality, the State or Municipality must cede political and operating control to the Executive Branch of the federal government. The President shall, without the advice and consent of either the House or the Senate, appoint a new Governor (State) or Mayor (Municipality). The appointee shall serve no fewer than two years and shall, with the consent of the Executive Branch, have final authority over all rules, regulations and legislation made or passed by the legislative bodies of the State or Municipality. The appointee will have line-item veto power over any spending bill or budget item. Further,

The Inalienable Right of Christians to Risk and Lay Down Their Lives for Others In recent days the airwaves and social media have been the epicenter of a raging debate around President Trump's recent pronouncement that churches should no longer be kept closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The current Argument The justification for declaring churches as "essential," for most Christians, is based on two primary arguments: first, that the Constitution protects both our freedom to worship and our right to assemble; second, that we are commanded to gather together in corporate worship. Of course, there is also the very legitimate argument that churches should be no more restricted than grocery stores, barber shops or other places that have looser restrictions than do houses of worship.  All these are legitimate arguments, and the proposed solutions coming from the churches are reasonable. It is just as easy for a church to re-open safely as it is for a business, and frankly,