Choice

Why did Moses and the children of Israel spend forty years wondering in the desert?  If you believe the Moses spin that is up front in the Bible it was because they were afraid of the giants in the land.  This is what happened but after all the heavenly assistance rendered to them as they escaped captivity in Egypt, why would they fear a few giants and hostile peoples?  Their fear overwhelmed them because the killings at Mount Sinai was a choice to live by the point of a sword.  Moses had taken control away from God and they were on their own, a human religion had replaced God.

Eventually and without exception human strength will turn to weakness.  Crossing the Jordan River and possessing the promised land was to much to ask of a religion lead people.  They retreated into the desert where they wandered for 40 years.  To all those who say that God kills to get his own way, you are wrong. If God is a killer God, Jesus would have raised an army!  To all those Biblical literalists who believe that Moses was marching to the kill at the direction of God, you really don’t know God.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

County Tyranny

This Landers resident is a newbie in our rural community but I have lived in San Bernardino County for the last twenty five years.  We have a wonderfully different lifestyle here in Landers, one that I greatly prefer to the more fast paced communities of this county with their paved and lighted streets.  Our sandy right of ways keep us close to the beauty of our desert environment.  It truly is a joy to live in Landers.

The last two and a half years in Landers has also been a learning experience as I have gotten to know the folk.  These people believe they have long been ignored, neglected and abused by San Bernardino County government.  You, the county, have said by your actions that the concerns of Landers are not be the concern of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.  This newbie is now another witness to the abuse and believes that you should be embarrassed and held accountable.

The abuse begins with the first request for county help in Landers, help that is supposed to be available.  Yes, we do pay county property taxes in Landers.  My own experience contacting county services is that their first priority of county employees is to be as unhelpful as possible, minimizing their response obligations.  Some of us are just stubborn enough to demand that the county workers do their jobs no matter how overtaxed they may or may not be, no excuses.  After repeated calls to code enforcement and animal control about a trashy property and loose dogs in the neighborhood, I finally made contact with the heads of each department and positive outcomes began to happen.      

Most offensive to the folk are two current issues in which the Board of Supervisors has been complicit in dismissing the concerns of Landers.  In June of 2013, the BOS approved a rate increase upon the customers of the county run W-1 Water District in Landers, effective in thirty days.  An emergency scenario in W-1 was dishonestly dumped upon the Supervisors to justify the increase, this dishonesty resides in the lap of county run and funded Special Districts.  While the BOS failed to do due diligence on the worthiness of this request for a rate increase, BOS should have known not to trust anything emanating from this rouge department, Special Districts.  The approval for a rate increase was a slap in the face upon the good folk of Landers who knew that the increase and the threat of future increases were financially indefensible.

When Bighorn Desert View Water Agency stepped up to offer relief to W 1 customers by way of annexation, Special Districts management went into panic mode and were suddenly content with just one rate increase.  The residents of Landers would like to know for whom else their rate increases were to fund?  Is this how the political leaders of this county operate, taking from the relatively poor and giving to the down the hill rich?  My requests for financial documentation from Special Districts were again dishonest, deflecting my request for information to the regular audit that was to be out in November. Here we are in January, has anyone seen their audit?  Something very shaky is going on and the Board of Supervisors is ultimately responsible. How is it that Bighorn Desert View Water Agency can operate more efficiently, with 100% financial transparency, in the same community with the same resources as the county run W-1?  The answer is that we the people have been asked to participate in the decision making at Bighorn.

The second issue is the counties expediting of solar projects in Landers.  Please let me be crystal clear, these projects are not wanted in Landers and while we got a slow start, our community has come together and is up in arms against the tyranny of our county politicians, we have had enough!  The Planning Commission, a board appointed by the BOS, approved the Bowman Solar Project with little community comment and no support.  Our solar leaders in Landers have filed an appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval of the project.  The Board of Supervisors will be airing the appeal at a January 6 meeting that should be well attended and of concern to all desert lovers.

We shall be saying, “Don’t trash my desert”!

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

 

Twisted ...

Exodus 31:18
When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

Exodus 32:19
When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.

Exodus 32:27, 28, 29
Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.  ‘Each man strap a sword to his side.  Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ”  The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.  Then Moses said, “You have been set apart for the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”    (TNIV Study Bible)

Mother tells the story about church pastors at a church business meeting and an argument ensues.  One of the pastors rises and makes a point by saying that God said that the issue must be resolved “thus and so”.  Another pastor of the opposite persuasion immediately rises saying that God told him in his prayers that God wants the opposite point.  Did neither pastor hear from God?  Did only one pastor correctly hear from God?  If so, which one?   Our will is so easily transferred to the Almighty for distribution.  Is this not twisted?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Dear Governor Jeb Bush

Election season will soon be upon us again and from the media reports you are signaling a possible run for the Republican nomination in 2016.  No one can discount your qualifications for the office of President for you are a good man who would be an excellent chief executive.  The big money Wall Street interests are no doubt lining up to encourage your entrance into the race and the Republican establishment elites want another turn at bat.  We understand, we get it but above all else we concerned Americans want a winner!

In fact, we must win if an America with upward mobility is to survive.  We are at the point of no return, after this election, if the Democrats prevail, we will forever be a typical nation where birth circumstances determine one’s future regardless of personal intellect, effort, luck or creativity.  We shall then cease to be America so please consider your liabilities that are, admittedly, not of your own making.  They are, none the less, liabilities that will have to be hurdled in the 2016 presidential election if you win the Republican nomination.  Will you project enough mojo in November to win the battle, can you beat the Democrats?  Mr. Bush, only you can rightly gauge that probability.

Perhaps you can gain some insight into the decision by considering the ancient Chinese treatise, “The Art of War”, attributed to Sun Tsz.  There is no doubt that the Democrats consider politics a no holes barred war so Republican politics must have the same mindset.  Sun Tsz advises those engaging in war to know yourself and to know your enemies for the most intuitive combatant will win.  Ho Chi Min defeated us in Vietnam because he intuitively knew that the revolution had proximity to the fight and the support of the people.  He also knew that Americans do not have the stomach for a protracted bloody conflict in a far away place.  Ho was right and we keep making the same dumb decisions over the last fifty years, including your brother, President George W. Bush, who decided to do nation building in Iraq.  

Your presidential candidacy may be a dumb decision for another reason.  The Democratic candidate is sure to be a populist like Barack O’bama.  He takes actions that gathers strength from the economic bottom half of the electorate even though these folk are the one’s suffering the most harm from his economy.  At the same time he buys off the economic top half of the electorate by propping up the booming stock market.  This seemingly irrational strategy works because the Republicans play into the Democratic narrative by sending Wall Street and big business indebted politicians to fight the war, politicians like Meg Whitman in California and nationally McCain and Romney.  All of these politicians failed because the bottom half wins big elections and the Wall Street types are vulnerable targets.

Perhaps you are looking to run in the primaries because the Democrats are showing weakness as the 2014 midterms indicate.  Sorry to say but the O’bama Democrats are doubling down on the power of the little people and sending another “rich” Republican to do battle is asking for another failure in 2016.  Your candidacy is not the right fit America needs at this critical hour.  Is there a populist Republican among the very strong and broad list of potential candidates?  Is there someone from the little people out there who can give all the people a booming economy and who will lift the fortune of the entire country?

As we go into the primary season let’s find him or her and then you, Mr. Bush, can encourage the moneyed folks, the Wall Street folks and the big business folks to aggressively support that candidate.  Winning means that we all can govern and prosper together.  Mr. Bush, at this critical hour, please set aside your presidential ambitions for the good of the country.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Dog Fight

The 2016 Republican primary season is shaping up to be a dog fight.  Judging from past primaries, we are in for a gargantuan hissing and spitting free for all of a Republican food fight.  The Democrats, especially the O’bama progressive left wing of that party are salivating as they fantasize about the expected spectacle.  Can you imagine 20 Republican candidates tearing up each other for months prior to the big event?  The election season that really matters will be a mere political skirmish giving us another big government Democrat in the White House.   America, can you survive another repeat?

Wisdom has not been the forte of the Republican Party but this time we have no choice, it is win or die!  This time, we must do the Republican presidential primary the Ronald Reagan way.  Each and every primary candidate must adhere to his Eleventh Commandment which reads, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any other Republican”.  Reagan lived up this mantra most of the time but resorted to personal attacks against Gerald Ford in the 1976 primary.  Then President Ford won the primary but was so weakened by the attacks of Reagan that he lost the presidential election to  Jimmy Carter (Wikipedia).

If personal attacks were not allowed, each and every primary candidate would be judged on their vision for America, how well they communicate that vision and then how well they sell it to the electorate.  The O’bama way works only for the political elites, not the people, any of the people.  Just imagine 20 Republican candidates bashing the status quo of the Democrats instead of each other, the media might have to cover that show.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca    

Antithesis

This fancy word is one of my favorites, it means to be opposed to something, or to contrast with something or to be the direct opposite.  Religion is the antithesis of Jesus.  The Ten Commandments are the antithesis of The Beatitudes.  We are familiar with the rules of the Ten Commandments, these are the beatitudes.  This is the only way, a bottom up way but the only way to please God in this world. .

The Beatitudes of Matthew 5 : 3-12  (Today’s New International Version Bible)
  1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
  3. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
  4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.
  5. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
  6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
  7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
  8. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  9. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, for great is your reward in heaven.
10. Rejoice and be glad, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The Beatitudes of Matthew 5: 3-12   (The Message Bible, Peterson)   ( Goslaw amplification)
  1. Happy are those who are unworthy of God, for they have a future with him.
  2. Happy are those who grieve over their failures, for they will find the strength to try again.
  3. Happy are the powerless in their own circumstance, for God will provide powerful results.
  4. Happy are those who chase after the way of God, for that way is never ending.
  5. Happy are those who care about others, for they will find that same care.
  6. Happy are those who take the inward journey toward a right heart, for they will reflect God outwardly.
  7. Happy are those who do not demand their own way, for we then become a part of the God gathering.
  8. Happy are those who upset the normal folk by chasing after the way of God, for then you are sure of your destination.
  9. Happy are those who are attacked with insults, persecution and evil lies because of their faith in Jesus, for God’s gathering process is it’s own reward.
10. Happy are those who are attacked because they listen and speak for the Voice, for then you are in the good company of the prophets.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Speaking of Moses

The base line conflict in the Bible is between the religion of Israel and the voice of God.  Can all the books written explaining the theology of the Bible be summarized in this little sentence?  If it is possible, then the simplicity is frightening and marvelously freeing for the conflict is not between God and Satan or sinners and saints or cowboys and Indians, it is between men who usurp the throne of God and God himself.  God considers the height of arrogance the assertion that any man or woman can somehow adequately guide the rest of us to God.  God is God to every man, whether they know it or acknowledge it for themselves.

Each religion on the face of this earth is heir to this usurping arrogance regardless of their relative value.  Some of you by now are shouting unfounded anti Semitic accusations at this author.  The fact is that the religion of Israel has preserved a peoples identity and inherent character for over four thousand years.  There is no more significant an accomplishment in the history of mankind and God will always consider you, the Jewish people, his first born.  However, like all other religions, including Christianity and Islam, the voice of God is always drowned out by human effort.   In the context of the middle East four thousand years ago, Moses was the founder of the religion of the Old Testament and this is how it happened.  

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, the patriarchs of the faith, were only listeners who were blessed by the Voice.  Moses became a listener in the isolation of the desert, heard the Voice from the burning bush and with much trepidation, did as he was directed.  With God in charge freedom came to the children of the patriarchs.  After crossing the Red Sea, the traveling city of Hebrew peoples made camp at the foot of Mount Sinai and the Voice told Moses to climb the mount alone.  As the days passed waiting for Moses to return the people got bored so they did the human thing, they partied.  The going’s on were reaching a fever pitch when Moses reappears.

The partying infuriates Moses, the consuming anger that drove him to kill in his youth again ignites.  He raises the tablets of stone with a message for the people of God above his head and throws then into the rocks where they forever shatter.  Then he gathers the good guys around him and slaughters three thousand of the family with the sword.  The heart of Moses had turned dark for he had taken control of God’s people and this event gave birth to the religion of Israel and a top down human agenda.  There were tears and wailing in the camp that night, there was questioning, is this the way of God?  Are we to be driven to a positive spiritual place by threats and the sword?  Religion says yes and so it has always been.

One might ask, what message from God to his people was on the tablets of stone that Moses shattered?  After a fifty year familiarity with the Bible and the Church, that question was never asked by me or anyone else.  The assumption made by all was that the first tablets were the same as the second version that Moses would soon bring down from the Mount, a religious document, a list of rules that would become the founding legal document of western civilization.  However, what if we do not go to court with God?  What if we really don’t have to earn the love and acceptance of God?  What if the first tablets was a bottom up document, a promise that whatever negative experience we may have in this world, it is not God. Could the shattered tablets have been a bottom up document similar to the “Beatitude” of Mathew 5:3-12?  Jesus told us the way.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.  

The War of 2016

The O’bama Democrats are doing extreme, no holes barred politics, it is war.  There are no political rules or traditions that remain unbroken.  Fighting a war means there is a time to mount an assault, a time to retreat and a time to hold your ground.  Trying to do the normal political stuff in this environment is like going to war with a nuclear power using only an arsenal of pick up sticks.  To fight a frontal assault under these circumstances and at this time is political suicide for the Republican party and our democracy.  The Republicans will be slammed and blamed for the chaos, our president knows it and is desperate for such a frontal Republican political assault.  So what shall we do? … Nothing? … Yes, nothing!

President Obama has two years left to do his reshaping of America but the people have already awakened to the fact that this pudding will not gel.  Under his leadership, no distraction trumped up by the White House can put Humpty Dumpty back together again, so America be cool like O’bama.  The 2016 presidential campaign will begin in earnest a year from now, that is the time to begin returning fire from the wealth of Republican national leadership.  The war that matters is for the White House in 2016.  Win the White House and we can restore order and take back America, the land of the free!

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

The new legal illegals

Re: “Within the law”  (Richard Boyd)

Thank you Mr. Boyd for your attaboy of November 30, Daily Press.  While we can all agree that the president’s action is not amnesty, as you narrowly define it, you do agree with most Americans that it is a path to citizenship. It is an illegal path to citizenship given to a large group of people without congressional action.  There is no law giving the president the authority for this give away and is therefore not within the law.  I repeat, it is a criminally illegal action by the President of the United States.  We are being ruled over as in a banana republic, for shame!

You site the actions of Reagan and Bush but America is tired of this repeated distortion.  You know and we know that their actions were small fixes to legislation that was passed by Congress.  Why can you not accept the obvious?  You claim that the new legal illegals will not be voting but they will have Social Security cards and drivers licenses, how stupid do you think we are?  You claim that the house will not act on immigration and this is another distortion.  The House has sent legislation to the Senate but Harry Reid and the President don’t like the step by step approach to immigration reform. It is the presidents way or the highway, sounds like a dictatorship to me.

One might ask as I do of you, who is the real liar?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

Moses and the Movies

In my blog posting of August 28, 2010, “Holy Moses Wash”, an attempt was made to identify and evaluate the biblical record of the life of Moses.  This blog posting has been the most often searched out opinion of my writing experiment.  It has been viewed 764 times out of 11,513 hits over the last five years.  These are not very impressive numbers but almost every week there is a hit on this posting indicating, at least to me, that there is some interest out there in Moses.  Another biblical epic and Hollywood movie is about to hit the big screen to tell the story of Moses.  Who was this man, Moses, a humble savior of his people who followed the voice of God or a morally blinded killer who terrorized his enemies in the name of religion?  Could not Moses have been both, both a model spirit for us and a life warning?

Christian Bale, the actor who is Moses in the movie, is seemingly correct when he considers Moses a schizophrenic personality.  Moses in life earned both our admiration and our condemnation.  You will hear little about the second terrorist Moses in your Church because mass murder is not a particularly uplifting narrative.  Conversely, my expectation is that you will not fully hear of the first Moses, the divinely lead humble servant of the voice of God in the upcoming movie, “Exodus, Gods and Kings”.  Hollywood will attempt to nullify the power of the first Moses and demonize all peoples of faith by demonizing the second Moses.  Both understandings of Moses, that of the Church and that of Hollywood, are in error and amount to kinder garden stuff.

The question that should be asked of the movie and the biblical narrative is whether Moses had a psychological or a spiritual impairment.  The movie will say that the story is about the psyche of Moses but allow me to argue for the latter, the spiritual understanding of the man.  The central starring character in the biblical narrative is not Moses but God, the divine reality who rules the heavens and the earth.  As long as Moses was a humble servant of the voice of God, God took actions to defeat the Egyptian power grabbing God imposter, Pharaoh.  Moses got into trouble when he got in the way of God and also became a power grabber and like Moses we humans are cursed with a like desire to be the man, the up front game changer, the one to make a spectacular impression upon this world.

As a young man, Moses tried to bring change his way, the human way, with violence and killing.  The news got out and he fled in fear into the desert and decades of isolation from his God and his people.  Moses slowly yielded, let go of his plans and just listened.  Surprise, surprise, God took action as the central character in the rescue of the called out people of Palestine, the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  When Moses stood before Pharaoh it was always, “God said, let my people go!”  It was not a request but Moses had no earthly power to enforce the demand of God.  Pharaoh laughed.  It is a grand story worthy to be told over and over again, the movie is therefore welcomed but no matter how good may be the movie, the movie will not do the events justice.

The Bible comes out the winner in the realm of storytelling for it preserves the whole story, the good, the bad and the ugly, so that we can make a truly informed life decision.   As for the movie, one can always hope.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

Who are we?

America, it is time to abandon our historical nicety and the self imposed verbal boundaries that have been our political dialog.  Two hundred and thirty eight years after we began this political experiment, our politics has become the killer sport of cold calculating criminals.  They have risen to power and maintain that power by exploiting the simplicity of the people, a simplicity that believes government can be trusted.  While the American people may be simple minded, we are not stupid, we just don’t want to believe that our political process, fostered by the good intentions of all, could result in the trashing of our national goodness.  We would rather believe the lies, we would rather cling to the national denial of reality, than to admit the truth, our country is ruled from top to bottom by a self indulgent criminal enterprise.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca