the Great Lands

Hannah Sorpat’s Eye – a Review

Joseph — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 14:18:54 PDT

In Hannah Sorpat’s Eye, Scott, his father Russell, and Sylvia are abducted by aliens. The book tells the story of the Christian father and his son who must learn to deal Sylvia who they’ve never met while trying to get through their experiences on an alien ship and beyond.

An alien abduction presents a theological/faith problem for Scott as he tries to reconcile the aliens he sees with the lack of any mention in the Bible. Scott also has trouble getting along with his father and Sylvia who’s just about as stubborn as Scott. I enjoyed seeing a resolution to the theological problem and the personal problem. The theological problem is solved with an answer that reminded me of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis.

A good half of the book is taken up with Scott’s time hacking into the alien’s computer system. This section provides much of interest especially to those who have an interest in technology and computers. On one occasion I was glad to check out Wikipedia to understand what a “token-passing network” was as it is said to be “elegant and efficient” compared to ethernet.

The book moved along nicely and kept my interest. Except for the theological question, I would most compare it to Out of the Silent Planet, which I consider to be the most accessible of C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy. I would recommend Hannah Sorpat’s Eye to anyone wanting a fun science fiction novel with a good bit of believable computer technology. I look forward to promised future novels in the series (see www.wardwagher.com).

The Sword by Bryan Litfin

Joseph — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:30:30 PDT

I recently received a copy of The Sword by Bryan Litfin from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. The Sword seeks to explore what would happen if the Bible were introduced into a society with no knowledge of God or the Bible. The book follows the main characters as they progress from living in this society to the life changing experience of finding a copy of God’s word in an old church.

The premise of the story is very interesting but I found the setup to be rather simplistic and unbelievable. Once you get past the two introductory chapters the story that follows is very compelling. The characters were interesting and most of the situations they found themselves in were believable. The false religions presented in the book are ridiculous but it see they are very similar in that respect to those presented in the Bible.

The good characters have their flaws and realize that the only way to accomplish anything is to believe that God is able to deliver them. They don’t always do the right thing but find that God will forgive even the worst sinners. They learn that God doesn’t always work out situations the way they would like but that they need to have faith that he is working.

The writing is not exceptional but didn’t distract from the story most of the time. I think it’s a good job for a first novel from the author. I would recommend this book to any that are intrigued by the premise of introducing the Bible to a society completely without Christianity. I look forward to reading the second volume in the series.

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A Biblical Understanding of the State’s Authority

Joseph — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:26:50 PDT

Doug Wilson has recently posted an excellent series of articles that basically get down to a biblical understanding of the state and how it relates to citizens of the state. Can the state do wrong or more specifically is there a level of taxation that the government has no right to take? Without much more explanation I want to link to the articles he wrote:

The Right and the Left – Any Difference?

Joseph — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:55:46 PDT

The Right says that the government isn’t the solution to problems at home but at the same time wants the government to solve problems everywhere else. The Left says the opposite. When either are elected they grow the government at home and never actually shrink the presence of our government abroad. When will the vast majority realize that government as practiced today is also the cause of most of these problems.

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Collision

Joseph — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:58:25 PDT

I just finished watching Collision: Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson. This documentary follows a series of debates and discussions that Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens did after they had authored the book, Is Christianity Good for the World?. It is excellent and seems to present a fair look at both sides of the argument. Christopher Hitchens claims that Christianity is an “immoral” religion, while Doug Wilson consistently points out that Hitchens has no basis for what is and is not moral (where does the atheist base his morality).

Ultimately the argument between the believer and non-believer is an issue of faith. The Christian believes because God has given him the gift of faith. The unbeliever rejects because his sin has darkened his understanding. Collision will edify the believer and I would recommend that everyone see it.

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Watch the “Audit the Fed” Hearing

Joseph — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:20:45 PDT

Ron Paul’s bill to Audit the Fed, HR1207, went through committee hearing on Friday. You can watch the whole hearing in 5 parts below.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Audit the Fed Update The House Financial Services Committee will hold hearings...
Audit the Fed The Campaign for Liberty and other diverse organizations...

Audit the Fed Update

Joseph — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:13:34 PDT

The House Financial Services Committee will hold hearings on Ron Paul’s bill to audit the fed this Friday, September 25, beginning at 9 a.m. You can watch the hearings online here.

Don’t forget to buy End the Fed if you haven’t already, and contact your congressman and senators to get this bill passed quickly.

In related news the bill now has 290 cosponsors in the house which is a supermajority.

Audit the Fed The Campaign for Liberty and other diverse organizations...
End the Fed Ron Paul’s latest book, End the Fed, will...

End the Fed

Joseph — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:46:16 PDT

Ron Paul’s latest book, End the Fed, will be released on September 16. If you are at all interested, please pre-order the book to help make it a best seller on Amazon and get it more exposure. Also, don’t forget to contact your congressman and senators and tell them to cosponsor HR1207 and S604 to Audit the Fed.

Audit the Fed Update The House Financial Services Committee will hold hearings...
Audit the Fed The Campaign for Liberty and other diverse organizations...

Does the Bible Require the State?

Joseph — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:54:51 PDT

Mark Horne has posted an excellent question asking how the Christian relates to the state. Romans 13 is clear that we are to obey the leaders placed over us, but if a Christian finds himself living in a society without a state is he sinning if he doesn’t set up a state? Read Mark’s article at Was a Christian Missionary supposed to tell Icelanders to repent and start a state?

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Whole Foods CEO on Health Care

Joseph — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:45:12 PDT

John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods Market, has written an article at the Wall Street Journal on The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare. It is good to see someone from the business world pointing out that there are better ways. Part of the problem with this whole health care debate is that President Obama’s side wants you to think that we currently have a free market. They then try to convince you that the free market doesn’t work. The problem is that health care doesn’t happen in a free market. To name a few obvious intrusions into health care that manipulate the market with easy money and also add unnecessarily regulation we have the Food and Drug Administration, Medicare and Medicaid to just name the government intrusions that first pop into my mind. Let’s quit pretending the market is currently free and maybe realize that some of these past ideas created the current problems.

I first saw this story on the Campaign for Liberty blog in the article, Health Care, Whole Foods, and Consumer Choice. Andrew Ward points to the progressives that have now vowed to boycott Whole Foods. All those against ObamaCare should consider increasing their shopping there.

The Post Office and Health Care President Obama said the following in his recent...
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Audit the Fed

Joseph — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:04:32 PDT

The Campaign for Liberty and other diverse organizations have formed a coalition to promote HR 1207 and S 604 and the need to audit the fed. Go to their site and sign the petition and then check on your Congressman and Senators to see if they are supporting it. Thank them if they are and ask them to support it if they aren’t already.

Then head over to Amazon and order a copy of Ron Paul’s upcoming book End the Fed.

Audit the Fed Update The House Financial Services Committee will hold hearings...
End the Fed Ron Paul’s latest book, End the Fed, will...

The Post Office and Health Care

Joseph — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:03:34 PDT

President Obama said the following in his recent town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire:

They do it all the time. If you think about it, UPS and Fed-Ex are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems…. there is nothing inevitable about this somehow destroying the private marketplace. As long as it is not set up where the government is being subsidized by the taxpayers so that even if they are providing a good deal, we keep having to pony up more and more money.

Lew Rockwell has written an article, Obama and the Post Office, in which he shows how that Obama’s simple admission gets to the heart of the problem. If the government run and supported Post Office can’t stop losing money, how does anyone expect health care to be different? As Rockwell points out the only reason the Post Office accomplished anything (while still losing money) is that the law prohibits any competition in certain areas of it’s business.

When the government can’t compete in an area of business, laws are passed to either make the competition illegal or at least lots more difficult.

The entire text of President Obama’s town hall meeting can be found at the New York Times with the statements mentioned here being located at page 9.

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Exercise Your Rights

Joseph — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:27:33 PDT

If you have the time, I highly recommend watching the following 8 minute video in which the news media (Chris Matthews specifically) demonstrates how out of touch they are with your constitutional rights.

The Government Hurts the Poor?

Joseph — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:43:41 PDT

Ben Bernanke Was Wrong

Joseph — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:38:09 PDT

Ben Bernanke had no idea what was going to happen to the economy. Watch this collection of his statements from the past. This should be one reason to realize that we need to audit the fed. The fed manipulates the economy and we need to know what they do.

For those unfamiliar with those who say what was coming you can watch the following video compiling historical clips showing that Peter Schiff was right.

(HT: Mises.org)