Four Corners

Flat-earth society. When people rail against Christians, they hurl this out as though it explains everything. The explanation is “the Bible states four corners of the Earth. Obviously that’s untrue, the Earth is a sphere! There’s no four corners on a sphere, ergo sooooo the Bible is wrong!”

My biggest issue here isn’t the flawed rhetoric on the Bible being false; the biggest offence here is the assault on logic. Let us take it for granted that indeed, Christians believe in a flat-earth (an idea created in the 19th century, just for some fact checking fun). No where, and absolutely no where, does anyone say its a square flat-earth. Using “four corners” as proof for believing in a flat earth is absurd. Simply by being flat, does not give the Earth corners. No one has ever thought the Earth was square or a cube. Even a flat-earth is round. It would be a circle, and I will be darned if I have ever seen a circle with corners on it.

“Four corners” cannot be referring to an oddly pointy circle. Rather the solution is simple and a bit obvious. It means cardinal points. We use those cardinal points to this day. Does that make everyone a flat-earther now? We know the Earth is a sphere, we know it is round, and the Bible clearly calls it circular, yet we (and it) use a compass rose. We do so without suddenly being flung into abject ignorance every time.

Think, before flinging ad hominems: they have a way of boomeranging.

By the way, monarchs have this ancient symbol, it’s a big SPHERE with a cross on it. It represents the Earth, and Christ’s rule over her. It’s not flat, and it’s not a square (corners!) but a sphere.

Middle Class Warrior

The poverty threshold for a citizen of the USA is $11,490. This means one person will live on, every year (perhaps adjusting for inflation), $11,490 and they are considered to be living in poverty. There are officially about 39.1 million Americans who are poor (living in poverty). There are likely more who are unaccounted for.

February 11, 2014 was the state dinner hosted for French President Hollande. For this event the First Lady wore a beautiful custom designed dress, worth $12,000. Pause for a moment. This dress is worth more than what many Americans live on for an entire year. Maybe it is perfectly alright to spend that much on a dress for a lavish event while nearly 47 million Americans are on food stamps (costing nearly 72 billion dollars). This is not the only high priced dinner party the president has thrown. CBS news filed a freedom of information act request and this is what they found http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-do-state-dinners-cost-they-aint-cheap/

While throwing fêtes is something that must be done at times, doing so with such grandeur is nearing obscene because of the sheer hypocrisy. On September 22, 2011, Obama made this statement in Cincinnati: “I am a warrior for the middle class.” He has also made various statements about the unfairness of the wealthy and redistribution of wealth: these things should be easy to find, they’re practically a cornerstone of every speech by this time. The point is to tell labourers that he fights for them (and not just fights, but is a warrior), while holding dinners for dignitaries above and beyond what should ever be expected for a nation trillions upon trillions in debt, with 47 million on food stamps, and who are supposed to be fighting the unfair excesses of wealth. People are losing their jobs, their health plans, their savings. People make in an entire year less than the cost of the dress the First Lady wore specifically for one dinner.

A warrior for the middle class? Perhaps a warrior for them to also be put onto food stamps. He is fiddling while the ship goes down. This entire scenario is, as stated above, grotesque for this simple juxtaposition: the citizens of the Soviet Union lived in poverty and had to line up for government sanctioned foods and other goods, while the leaders and officials lived in lavish luxury. Expensive dinner parties, dresses, cars (did we mention the gilded trollies that shuttled the visitors across the White House lawn to the tent where the dinner party was held?), everything they could want, and take, was there as they pleased. The people starved and suffered.

$11,490 poverty line.
$12,000 dress for one dinner.
Does this sound anything like a Warrior For the Middle Class?

Quaestionem

Uncomfortable facts and troublesome truths bother most people. It is easier to affirm common mythologies and generally accepted histories or stories than to actually analyze what we are presented with, or believe. Many react vehemently, even violently, to anyone voicing a dissenting view or pouring light on realities that were ignored; often willfully. Willfully in the sense of not wanting to question, doubt or think critically about the liked, the popular or the acceptable. People do not like questions shaking their paradigms.

Personally? I think it is fascinating.