Proverbs. The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings. Most are attributed to Solomon. A couple of chapters are attributed to Agur and Lemuel’s mother.
Though related proverbs are loosely grouped together, the book overall can seen disjointed. This is the partly the nature of a collection of sayings.
With the exception of a few longer, poetic sections, each proverb is a short saying, usually just a couple of lines. Often, the second line is a comparison or contrast to the first. A typical proverb may express essentially the same idea in two ways, or it may present opposite behaviors with their different results.
These sayings are intentionally short and often poetic because they are intended to be easy to remember. They are teaching tools.
What the proverbs teach are ethics. They encourage good behavior, righteousness, integrity, good character and wisdom. They discourage evil, injustice, deceit, bad character and foolishness.
The proverbs are founded on a religious understanding of the world. God exists and he has a plan for His creation. The world is a created order and understanding this order can lead to better decisions. God is just and ultimately sets everything right, even if it appears in the short-term that evil is rewarded and good has no effect.
Even though the proverbs have this religious outlook, they are not idealistic. Wisdom may begin with acknowledging God and His character, but it includes recognizing that our world is full of evil and corruption. Pitfalls abound with sexual immorality, strong drink, deceitful people, and corruption in business and government.
Living righteously in a corrupt world is not easy, and sometimes the advice on how to deal with evil and foolishness seems to conflict. While it is straightforward enough that we should never do what is evil, sometimes the proverbs advise to confront and sometime they advise to let things be. Sometimes the wisest thing is to turn tail and run.
This isn’t so much a matter of conflicting advice as recognition that wisdom isn’t a cookie-cutter approach to life. We learn wisdom over time as we mature. People are different and we learn to tailor our responses to them for the best effect. In addition, the wisest people are always learning, always seeking appropriate counsel, and always turning to God because they recognize they don’t know it all, haven’t seen it all and are far from perfect.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query corruption. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query corruption. Sort by date Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Hammett, Dashiell. Red Harvest. 1929. New York: Vintage, 1992.
“I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.” These opening lines of Red Harvest are the first time the Continental Op will make a joke of Personville, and it’s the only funny one. The city is poison, run by criminals in every sector. They were brought in by the mining company to break the union, and now the head of the company is ready to be rid of them. The Continental Op is the man for the job.
He does it by turning the leaders of the various gangs, including the corrupt police department, against each other. Cozy relationships give way to war. Even the Continental Op becomes infected. He’s not above bending the rules, but he finds himself taking a bloodthirsty joy from the vengeful mayhem.
The lead character doesn’t have a name, but he is a prototypical hardboiled detective, written by an author who made the mold many others have used. He is tough, smart, aggressive, willing to do what it takes. He has a sense of justice, but doesn’t think it is always found in the justice system. In the Continental Op’s world of 1920’s California, police and court corruption are rampant. That goes double for Personville.
Violence and corruption are the theme of the book. It’s a story with roots deep in selfishness and pride. No one is above breaking the law to serve his or her own interests. The sins of one man beget a host of others. The sad conclusion is that a violence and deception is needed to break a violent and corrupt system, pushing into collapsing on itself.
Of course, no one picks up this book expecting a sweet romance of good overcoming evil. When, in closing, the Continental Op says Personville “was developing into a sweet-smelling thornless bed of roses,” one suspects he is speaking with the same dark, ironic humor with which he started the tale.
“I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.” These opening lines of Red Harvest are the first time the Continental Op will make a joke of Personville, and it’s the only funny one. The city is poison, run by criminals in every sector. They were brought in by the mining company to break the union, and now the head of the company is ready to be rid of them. The Continental Op is the man for the job.
He does it by turning the leaders of the various gangs, including the corrupt police department, against each other. Cozy relationships give way to war. Even the Continental Op becomes infected. He’s not above bending the rules, but he finds himself taking a bloodthirsty joy from the vengeful mayhem.
The lead character doesn’t have a name, but he is a prototypical hardboiled detective, written by an author who made the mold many others have used. He is tough, smart, aggressive, willing to do what it takes. He has a sense of justice, but doesn’t think it is always found in the justice system. In the Continental Op’s world of 1920’s California, police and court corruption are rampant. That goes double for Personville.
Violence and corruption are the theme of the book. It’s a story with roots deep in selfishness and pride. No one is above breaking the law to serve his or her own interests. The sins of one man beget a host of others. The sad conclusion is that a violence and deception is needed to break a violent and corrupt system, pushing into collapsing on itself.
Of course, no one picks up this book expecting a sweet romance of good overcoming evil. When, in closing, the Continental Op says Personville “was developing into a sweet-smelling thornless bed of roses,” one suspects he is speaking with the same dark, ironic humor with which he started the tale.
Friday, December 21, 2012
First John
John was
the youngest of the apostles and the
last to pass away. He was especially
close to Christ
during His earthly ministry, and John refers to himself as the one “whom Jesus loved” in
his gospel. The relationship was strong enough that Jesus
entrusted the young man with the care of His mother, Mary, as one of his
last acts on the cross.
Google
In this circular letter to the churches,
John drops the opening and closing introductions and greetings common to the
other epistles.
He launches directly into his message. I
find three themes in this book: the incarnation
of Christ and true spirituality,
knowing the truth,
and love.
The Incarnate Christ and True
Spirituality
Christianity
firmly asserts that Jesus Christ is God and at the same
time that He was incarnated as a man. He
lived and died
and was resurrected. He wasn’t resurrected as spirit, he was
resurrected bodily. John adamantly
reiterated that this is not only the doctrine of the church, it is something he
witnessed personally.
This teaching has consequences for Christian living. We are not pure, undefiled spirits residing
in sinful, depraved bodies. We are body
and spirit together. The actions we
take with our bodies have spiritual consequences. Likewise, if we are godly in our spirit, it
will show in our actions.
John’s writings on this subject may be a reaction to Gnosticism. It seems that teachers of some form of
Gnosticism or some other beliefs were attempting to infiltrate the church. They taught a strong duality between spirit
and body, so that the spirit was pure, good, and untouchable, so one could do
as they pleased in the body, which was inherently bad, lesser, and corrupt. In their view, the resurrected Jesus was as spirit
and shed the corruption of flesh to become pure.
Throughout the Bible, you
will not find a concept that material is bad and spirit is good. In Genesis, God
called the material world he made good, along with everything, man, animal,
plant, and mineral, in it. Satan and the
demons are spirits, but they are evil.
The Bible assures believers that they will be resurrected bodily, like
Christ, and that their resurrected body will be everlasting, good, and
incorruptible.
Knowing the Truth
Knowing the truth is a Christian’s defense against false teaching. John writes a lot about knowing in this
letter. That knowing is founded in the
revelation of Christ and in God’s Word. We can know that we know God (Chapter 2). We can know that we have a new, everlasting
life in Christ (Chapter 3). We can know
that God loves us (Chapter 4). We can
know that God hears our prayers (Chapter
5).
Knowing the truth allows us to test ourselves, what we hear, and who we
hear it from. Do we affirm the gospel,
including the divinity and bodily resurrection of Christ? Do we strive to keep God’s commandments? Do we recognize when we sin and repent? Do we love others and act on that love? Jesus Christ said we could know a tree by its
fruit, and John is encouraging us to look around and see if the fruit of would-be
teachers is good or not.
Love
John is sometimes called the “Apostle of Love.” Love is a theme of all his writings preserved
in the Bible (yes, even Revelation in
my opinion).
God loves us and we should love Him.
If we are Christians, we will love Him.
If we love Him, we will obey Him (Jesus said if we love Him, we will
keep his commandments). If we love Him,
we will love others, especially our brothers and sisters in the church (Jesus
said we would be known know for our love for each other). Love is the God’s response to us, even when
we were sinful and far from him, as evidenced in the incarnation, death, and
resurrection of Christ. The appropriate
response to Gods love is to love Him and love the others He loves.
John also wrote the Gospel of
John.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Interesting Stuff Feb. 25, 2008
18th Century U.K. Warship Wreck Found
25% Of TV Stations Stay With Digital Plans
"Catastrophic" Space Crash Spews Debris
China to provide clean water for 60 mln in 2009: state media
DTV at KRCG
DTV at KOMU
Interesting Stuff Jan. 8, 2009
L.A. mayor moves to limit water use and punish violators
Matchup: Prius vs. Texas Pickup Trucks
Missouri puts plug in radium problem
Scientists Scan Sky After Satellite Crash
Senate: Delay Digital TV Transition but House Nixes Pause Button On Digital TV
Sierra Leone Fights Corruption, Improves Sanitation
U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide
25% Of TV Stations Stay With Digital Plans
"Catastrophic" Space Crash Spews Debris
China to provide clean water for 60 mln in 2009: state media
DTV at KRCG
DTV at KOMU
Interesting Stuff Jan. 8, 2009
L.A. mayor moves to limit water use and punish violators
Matchup: Prius vs. Texas Pickup Trucks
Missouri puts plug in radium problem
Scientists Scan Sky After Satellite Crash
Senate: Delay Digital TV Transition but House Nixes Pause Button On Digital TV
Sierra Leone Fights Corruption, Improves Sanitation
U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Great Stink by Clare Clark
Clark, Clare. The Great Stink. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2005.
William May, the fictional protagonist, is a surveyor for the real Metropolitan Board of Works. From 1856 to 1870, the board led by its chief engineer Joseph Bazalgette who plays a minor part in the novel, built 80 miles of sewers under London. This massive infrastructure transformed the city and the Thames that runs through it.
May spends a lot of time in the crumbling old sewer that are soon to be joined and transformed by the board. The filth of London is the least of the horrors of Victorian England that he must overcome. He faces the Crimean War, a military hospital ship, corruption in politics and business, an insane asylum, prison, an indifferent justice system and his own misunderstood mental illness.
Though the novel is set in the midst of an enormous engineering project and the main character has such a breadth of experience, the story focuses on a few people coping with a changing (modernizing) world. Their stories are brought together by petty murder committed by a greedy man.
May, who except for his misfortune might be considered middle-class by 19th century standards, is contrasted to Long Arm Tom. Tom is a tosher; he makes his living recovering copper and other valuable material from the sewage and waste of the city. Many of London’s poorest lived by extracting meager value from waste. The great sewer project was brining and end to Tom’s profession.
May and Tom are witnesses to a murder. May almost hangs for it; it is luck, including the good fortune of having a conscientious lawyer assigned to his case, that rescues him. Tom becomes an accessory to the murder, and later uncovers it to get revenge.
Class was a huge part of English life, and it clearly comes through, but Clark resists taking a romantic view of it. Tom is not virtuous because or in spite of his poverty. He is a wily and unscrupulous denizen of a corrupt world. May is a professional who ostensibly has the most to gain from the social changes occurring, but deeply damaged and almost destroyed by the highs and lows of a society in flux. His lawyer, Sydney Rose, is the scion of an impoverished peerage. He is motivated by his hopes to move up in society as much as by any sense of noblesse oblige. His victory is due as much to luck and determination.
The pace of the book is slow compared to other thrillers of mysteries. The book is as much about May and Tom coping with a changing world as it is about murder mystery. It tempo picks up in the final chapters as Rose begins to put together a defense for May.
Overall, it is an enjoyable book. It works in its combination of history, mainstream fiction, mystery and picturing of a world that is rapidly changing through new technology.
(If you're interested in the history of the great London sewer project, see this review of Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury.)
Order this book here.
William May, the fictional protagonist, is a surveyor for the real Metropolitan Board of Works. From 1856 to 1870, the board led by its chief engineer Joseph Bazalgette who plays a minor part in the novel, built 80 miles of sewers under London. This massive infrastructure transformed the city and the Thames that runs through it.
May spends a lot of time in the crumbling old sewer that are soon to be joined and transformed by the board. The filth of London is the least of the horrors of Victorian England that he must overcome. He faces the Crimean War, a military hospital ship, corruption in politics and business, an insane asylum, prison, an indifferent justice system and his own misunderstood mental illness.
Though the novel is set in the midst of an enormous engineering project and the main character has such a breadth of experience, the story focuses on a few people coping with a changing (modernizing) world. Their stories are brought together by petty murder committed by a greedy man.
May, who except for his misfortune might be considered middle-class by 19th century standards, is contrasted to Long Arm Tom. Tom is a tosher; he makes his living recovering copper and other valuable material from the sewage and waste of the city. Many of London’s poorest lived by extracting meager value from waste. The great sewer project was brining and end to Tom’s profession.
May and Tom are witnesses to a murder. May almost hangs for it; it is luck, including the good fortune of having a conscientious lawyer assigned to his case, that rescues him. Tom becomes an accessory to the murder, and later uncovers it to get revenge.
Class was a huge part of English life, and it clearly comes through, but Clark resists taking a romantic view of it. Tom is not virtuous because or in spite of his poverty. He is a wily and unscrupulous denizen of a corrupt world. May is a professional who ostensibly has the most to gain from the social changes occurring, but deeply damaged and almost destroyed by the highs and lows of a society in flux. His lawyer, Sydney Rose, is the scion of an impoverished peerage. He is motivated by his hopes to move up in society as much as by any sense of noblesse oblige. His victory is due as much to luck and determination.
The pace of the book is slow compared to other thrillers of mysteries. The book is as much about May and Tom coping with a changing world as it is about murder mystery. It tempo picks up in the final chapters as Rose begins to put together a defense for May.
Overall, it is an enjoyable book. It works in its combination of history, mainstream fiction, mystery and picturing of a world that is rapidly changing through new technology.
(If you're interested in the history of the great London sewer project, see this review of Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury.)
Order this book here.
Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury & The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst
In Dreams of Iron and Steel (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), Deborah Cadbury tells the stories of seven great works that cover over a century of engineering history. Originally published in Great Britain as Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, the book was a companion to a BBC television series. The projects covered vary widely from a sewer built under a metropolis to a bridge that towered above the skyline of its day.
The oldest of these (still standing like all but one of the other projects) is the Bell Rock lighthouse. The Bell Rock sank many ships that sought shelter from North Sea storms in Scotland’s Firth of Forth. Robert Stevenson, grandfather of author Robert Louis Stevenson, designed and oversaw the construction of a tower on it. The rock was a formidable construction site. It sat eleven miles from land. High tide covered it with as much as 16 feet of water. Low tide exposed an area only 250 by 130 feet. Yet Stevenson and his men built a 100-foot, stone tower on it. They did it 200 years ago.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, several wonders were built almost at once. The Great Eastern, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was twice the size of any other ship. Though a commercial failure, it set the standard for the next generation of ships.
Brunel launched his ship into a dirty and diseased Thames. Joseph Bazalgette sought to make the river safer for London residents. He built sewers under an ancient city that had grown to 2.5 million people and sprawled over 80 square miles.
In the American West, rival firms raced across the continent to build a railroad that would unite a nation recovering from civil war. In New York, John and Washington Roebling tackled the broad East River with their Brooklyn Bridge. They risked their lives and reputations on the longest span of the day and a material untested in bridges—steel.
The twentieth century inaugurated bigger feats. First proposed in 1879 by Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps of France, builder of the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal defeated most of those tried to build it. Even the United States poked at the mountains in futility until John Stevens, a railroad engineer, upgraded the infrastructure and equipment. When Stevens left the canal, a frustrated Theodore Roosevelt put military officers in charge. Lieutenant Colonel George Goethels, an engineer with extensive lock and dam experience, saw the canal through to its completion shortly before World War I.
The final project, America’s “damn big dam”, was build during the Depression. Hoover Dam was huge and constructed under difficult conditions. But construction engineer Frank “Hurry up” Crowe pushed and planned to get it done early and under budget.
Cadbury treats each project separately. However, they are linked by common elements.
Tragedy and setbacks touched each one. Thousands of men, usually poor laborers and sometimes children, were killed or injured to make these huge structures. They were beset by lack of financing, reluctance to try new methods and materials, bankrupt contractors, political opposition, corruption, greed, prejudice, and other human imperfections.
At their best, these engineers and their wonders are linked by the same qualities that appear in the best of engineering today. They had a vision to make people safer, healthier, richer, and freer. They created solutions to immense problems.
Robert Stevenson’s triumph at Bell Rock won the confidence of the Northern Lighthouse Board. It also launched an association between the Stevenson family and Scottish lighthouses that lasted four generations. During their tenures in the office of engineer for the board, Stevenson and his sons dominated the design, construction, and operation of the lights. Bella Bathurst tells their story in The Lighthouse Stevensons (New York: HarperCollins, 1999).
This book has its own kind of variety: technical, professional, and personal. It covers the construction and technology of several lighthouses, the masterpieces of Robert and his three sons. They not only built towers, but also improved their design and the design of the lamps, reflectors, optics, and mechanical systems that operated in them. One even studied the waves that assaulted their works.
It shows that engineering is more than simply design and construction. The Stevensons were also managers, fundraisers, businessmen, public servants, purchasing agents, manufacturers, contractors, and more. Their work included a broad section of what engineers do.
The book is also a biography of these four men that reveals the dynamics of the family. Robert insisted his sons join the family profession and business. Only one, David, seemed to take to it naturally. Only David’s sons filled the next generation of lighthouse Stevensons. Alan and Tom were more inclined to work in literature and the arts. Alan proved himself to be a capable engineer by building a 138-foot light at Skerryvore that could withstand the elements and exhibit a simple beauty. He became so disabled by disease, Bathurst suggests it was muscular sclerosis, that he gave up his work with the lighthouses. He managed to work irregularly as a writer. His works include and encyclopedia article on lighthouses and a translation of Greek poems. Tom shared Alan’s artistic leaning, but not his intensity and focus. He and David eventually divided the engineering work for the Northern Lights.
Not everyone is cut out to be an engineer, of course. As Robert Louis Stevenson said about his internship in the profession, “He is a wise youth, to be sure, who can balance one part of genuine life against two parts of drudgery between four walls and for the sake of one, manfully accept the other.” But some managed to catch what Marion Allen, a laborer on the Hoover Dam, called constructitis. “Sometimes one thinks he is cured,” said Allen, “only to have a relapse when he goes by fresh concrete or catches the smell of fresh sawdust from new lumber. Anyone with this affliction has to start construction of some kind, even of only to dig a hole and fill it up again.”
Order this book here.
The oldest of these (still standing like all but one of the other projects) is the Bell Rock lighthouse. The Bell Rock sank many ships that sought shelter from North Sea storms in Scotland’s Firth of Forth. Robert Stevenson, grandfather of author Robert Louis Stevenson, designed and oversaw the construction of a tower on it. The rock was a formidable construction site. It sat eleven miles from land. High tide covered it with as much as 16 feet of water. Low tide exposed an area only 250 by 130 feet. Yet Stevenson and his men built a 100-foot, stone tower on it. They did it 200 years ago.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, several wonders were built almost at once. The Great Eastern, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was twice the size of any other ship. Though a commercial failure, it set the standard for the next generation of ships.
Brunel launched his ship into a dirty and diseased Thames. Joseph Bazalgette sought to make the river safer for London residents. He built sewers under an ancient city that had grown to 2.5 million people and sprawled over 80 square miles.
In the American West, rival firms raced across the continent to build a railroad that would unite a nation recovering from civil war. In New York, John and Washington Roebling tackled the broad East River with their Brooklyn Bridge. They risked their lives and reputations on the longest span of the day and a material untested in bridges—steel.
The twentieth century inaugurated bigger feats. First proposed in 1879 by Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps of France, builder of the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal defeated most of those tried to build it. Even the United States poked at the mountains in futility until John Stevens, a railroad engineer, upgraded the infrastructure and equipment. When Stevens left the canal, a frustrated Theodore Roosevelt put military officers in charge. Lieutenant Colonel George Goethels, an engineer with extensive lock and dam experience, saw the canal through to its completion shortly before World War I.
The final project, America’s “damn big dam”, was build during the Depression. Hoover Dam was huge and constructed under difficult conditions. But construction engineer Frank “Hurry up” Crowe pushed and planned to get it done early and under budget.
Cadbury treats each project separately. However, they are linked by common elements.
Tragedy and setbacks touched each one. Thousands of men, usually poor laborers and sometimes children, were killed or injured to make these huge structures. They were beset by lack of financing, reluctance to try new methods and materials, bankrupt contractors, political opposition, corruption, greed, prejudice, and other human imperfections.
At their best, these engineers and their wonders are linked by the same qualities that appear in the best of engineering today. They had a vision to make people safer, healthier, richer, and freer. They created solutions to immense problems.
Robert Stevenson’s triumph at Bell Rock won the confidence of the Northern Lighthouse Board. It also launched an association between the Stevenson family and Scottish lighthouses that lasted four generations. During their tenures in the office of engineer for the board, Stevenson and his sons dominated the design, construction, and operation of the lights. Bella Bathurst tells their story in The Lighthouse Stevensons (New York: HarperCollins, 1999).
This book has its own kind of variety: technical, professional, and personal. It covers the construction and technology of several lighthouses, the masterpieces of Robert and his three sons. They not only built towers, but also improved their design and the design of the lamps, reflectors, optics, and mechanical systems that operated in them. One even studied the waves that assaulted their works.
It shows that engineering is more than simply design and construction. The Stevensons were also managers, fundraisers, businessmen, public servants, purchasing agents, manufacturers, contractors, and more. Their work included a broad section of what engineers do.
The book is also a biography of these four men that reveals the dynamics of the family. Robert insisted his sons join the family profession and business. Only one, David, seemed to take to it naturally. Only David’s sons filled the next generation of lighthouse Stevensons. Alan and Tom were more inclined to work in literature and the arts. Alan proved himself to be a capable engineer by building a 138-foot light at Skerryvore that could withstand the elements and exhibit a simple beauty. He became so disabled by disease, Bathurst suggests it was muscular sclerosis, that he gave up his work with the lighthouses. He managed to work irregularly as a writer. His works include and encyclopedia article on lighthouses and a translation of Greek poems. Tom shared Alan’s artistic leaning, but not his intensity and focus. He and David eventually divided the engineering work for the Northern Lights.
Not everyone is cut out to be an engineer, of course. As Robert Louis Stevenson said about his internship in the profession, “He is a wise youth, to be sure, who can balance one part of genuine life against two parts of drudgery between four walls and for the sake of one, manfully accept the other.” But some managed to catch what Marion Allen, a laborer on the Hoover Dam, called constructitis. “Sometimes one thinks he is cured,” said Allen, “only to have a relapse when he goes by fresh concrete or catches the smell of fresh sawdust from new lumber. Anyone with this affliction has to start construction of some kind, even of only to dig a hole and fill it up again.”
Order this book here.
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