Category Archives: Personal

What is Logismoi?

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | January 26, 2024

Logismoi is assaultive thoughts or thought forms, not your everyday thoughts. We swim in a sea of thoughts; the Zeitgeist or the culmination of the culture.  Thought forms which are within this Zeitgeist can be assaultive.  They are not harmless.   Thoughts and thought images.  Logismoi are caused by battle with the devil.

There are 5 stages:

  1. Assault – ignore – turn away from it. Don’t have to fight it…swat them like flies buzzing around.   A thought enters our mind… for example to steal some money, lust, etc.  We are not accountable for the strike or the assault.   We have not committed a sin.  We have not done anything except being assaulted.
  2. Interaction – we open a dialogue with the logismoi .. Should I do this or should I do that. Should I steal this money or not? We analyze the risk vs. reward. Slap it down.  No accountability; no sin yet committed.
  3. Consent – defeat … we are accountable. Consent to what the logismoi tempted you to commit. This is the beginning of sin. Guilt.
  4. Captivity – if you can’t free yourself from the previous stage, then there is defeat. You become hostage to the logismoi, next time it comes around with greater force. Becomes a habit that is repeated time and again.
  5. Passion – it takes the grace of the Holy Spirit…prayer, passions to recover who you are. An entrenched reality. You are a captive to destructive acts to yourself and others.  You get rewired and reoriented.  Not a simple matter to deal with.  Capable of reasoning with the mind but the heart can’t escape and you descend into sin.

Assault > Interaction > Consent > Captivity (you become hostage to the logismoi); thus it becomes more and more difficult to resist > Passion / obsession / addiction  – you then participate in ongoing destructive acts … you give a key to your heart to Satan so he can get in and out without effort … Obsessive / Compulsive  – clouds and darkens the nous.  Takes the grace of the Holy Spirt to recover who you are.  Obey His commandments.  This is spiritual warfare.

Note: When the nous is illuminated it means that it is receiving the energy of God which illumines it. Nous refers to our highest faculty… the “I” that perceives God.

7 Deadly Sins and their remedy:

More on this topic: Time marker 54:04 in this video: Orthodox Catechism: Part 11: Spiritual Life and Spiritual Warfare

12 Degrees of sins – St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain 

  1. Does good, but not in a good manner – mixture of the good with the bad. For example you practice Lent perfectly but only so you can show off.
  2. Idleness in regard of good… not engaged in  actively doing good
  3. Assault of evil because of our carelessness
  4. Coupling with the assault – this is where sin starts – we start playing with sinful thoughts
  5. The struggle which is no struggle
  6. Consent
  7. Sin of the mind
  8. The deed itself
  9. Habit of committing the sin often
  10. Addiction to it
  11. Despair and hopelessness
  12. Suicide – being conquered by despair

Thinking Orthodox

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | December 28, 2023

Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

For me, ‘Thinking Orthodox’ was a page turner … answering questions I have about Orthodox Christianity and answering many questions I didn’t know I should be asking.  In short, this book represents a feast of new breakthroughs and understandings for me personally. Until recently, I thought the Christian world consisted of the Roman Catholics and their rebellious stepchildren, the Protestants.  I was unaware that Orthodoxy was and is the root of both: the Catholics spun off from their Orthodox foundations in 1054, later the Protestants separated from the Catholics in 1517.   The result of these departures –from the consistent and unbroken tradition of Orthodoxy– created thousands of Protestant denominations and a Church in Rome whose Pope claims universal jurisdiction.  In sum, Rome added to Orthodoxy’s unbroken tradition and Protestants subtracted from Orthodoxy in their earnest efforts to correct the many missteps of Rome after Rome’s break with Orthodoxy in 1054. Both the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, however, are left without the full context or the full gospel of their faith, and like me, most are unaware of what they are missing.

In ‘Thinking Orthodox‘, Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou introduced me to a new and useful word called the ‘phronema‘ (mindset or outlook).  She describes the Protestant and the Roman Catholic phronema and then shows how the Orthodox phronema differs.   I was left with a much clearer understanding of what it means to be Orthodox and the impact Western philosophy has had on both Rome and the Protestants.  In this regard, Protestants and Roman Catholics are more alike in their Western thought processes than Orthodox.

Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

  • Author: Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou
  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Dimensions: 6 x 9 inches
  • Publisher: Ancient Faith Publishing
  • by Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou

What does it mean to “think Orthodox”? What are the unspoken and unexplored premises and presumptions underlying what Christians believe? Orthodox Christianity is based on preserving the mind of the early Church, its phronema. Dr. Jeannie Constantinou brings her more than forty years’ experience as a professor, Bible teacher, and speaker to bear in explaining what the Orthodox phronema is, how it can be acquired, and how that phronema is expressed in true Orthodox theology – as practiced by those who are properly qualified by both training and a deep relationship with Christ.

About the Author: Dr. Eugenia Constantinou hosts the popular podcast Search the Scriptures Live! on Ancient Faith Radio. She has been a professor and visiting lecturer on the Bible, patristic interpretation of Scripture, and early Christianity at Orthodox and non-Orthodox universities and schools of theology. She holds master’s degrees in theology from the University of San Diego, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and Harvard Divinity School; a juris doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law; and a Ph.D. from Université Laval in Quebec City in the history of biblical interpretation. She is married to Fr. Costas, a Greek Orthodox priest.

Russians have always been very good coders

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | September 25th, 2021

Russians are generally good coders.  Why?  Because all they could afford early on were old, used underpowered computer systems with slow CPUs, low RAM and small hard drives.  This meant their code had to be small, tight and efficient to work and to be competitive.  These constraints put pressure on Russian programmers which made them some of the best on the planet.  American coders could be sloppy and inefficient and still get by.

Now I used to read, write and speak Russian –in fact I use to take most of my notes in Russian– but that was decades ago, so now I can still sound out the written words slowly, but can no longer understand what I’ve read.  Never been to Russia, but took Russian at the university and had several Russian friends who helped me learn.  I’ve also studied the incredibly complex history of Russia and use to read the outrageous Russian propaganda magazines for fun and entertainment during the Soviet period.

I had a friend who was deported from Russia for drawing leg hairs on Vladimir Lenin posters in Moscow with a magic marker.  He paid for his trips to Russia with blue jeans.  He would buy a suitcase full of them here in the states and sell them at very high prices in Russia since the Russian youth wanted to be cool like American kids, you could get $100 ea. or more.

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution was orchestrated by the Anglo-American Establishment including the president of the New York Fed and US President Wilson who also brought us the Federal Reserve, the income tax and WWI.  The result of the 1917 Revolution was the birth of Soviet Union in 1922, which died in 1991.  The soviet was a brutal, soul and body-killing machine about which you can learn more from ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ by  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Stalin’s Holodomor.

 

Also see: #Russia is developing a new OS – #Phantom

https://cybershafarat.com/2022/01/22/russia-is-developing-a-new-os-phantom/

 

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Masks don’t work

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | April 5th, 2021

Of course masks work and are great in certain circumstances.  For example, if you are mowing the yard, a mask can keep all the debris you stir up out of your lungs. If you are working in a woodshop cutting wood with a table saw, a mask may be a good way to keep the fine wood particles out of your mouth, nose and lungs.  Masks are a great way to keep small debris out of your lungs.   However, if you look at the data, and not at the experts, there is no evidence masks help prevent COVID – zero.     If you seek the advice of paid experts, they will likely tell you masks work to help prevent COVID, but this is just not supported by the evidence, yet this myth continues to be promulgated by our media and our bought and paid for ‘experts’.  Masks don’t work, but fear does.

The Highwire with Del Bigtree: TEXAS PROVING MASKS DON’T WORK?

As POTUS calls out leaders for dropping mask mandates, the science continues to be clear that masks are ineffective at stopping the spread of #Covid19. Jefferey Jaxen reports on the numbers out of Texas since Gov. Abbott lifted the statewide order, and highlights the experts that continue to speak out on this truly unscientific mitigation effort.

https://rationalground.com/post-thanksgiving-mask-charts-still-no-evidence-that-masks-work/

https://thenewamerican.com/cdc-admits-no-conclusive-evidence-cloth-masks-work-against-covid/

Masks Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy

Holland’s Top Scientists Say There’s No Evidence Face Masks Work — And May Actually Cause More Harm

BROWN: What’s the difference? One line is blue and one line is orange …

END

You can contact David Brown at David@clearnfo.com | You can catch up with him on MeWe here… mewe.com/i/davidbrown24 | And on Telegram here @ClearNFO

 

David’s Stack of Stuff (Sunday March 21st, 2021)

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | March 21st, 2021

HEALTH

Web: drekberg.com

My first topic this morning is health.  Until I discovered a few key pieces of data last year, I thought I had a better than average understanding of health.  After all I was exercising almost daily, ate almost no sugar and ate mostly healthy foods, yet I discovered how blissfully ignorant I was when no matter how hard I tried, I could not get below 185 lbs.  My goal was 165 to 175 but that was not possible under my current regimen.  Enter Dr. Sten Ekberg (YouTube).  Dr. Ekberg taught me a few simple changes that would allow me to break the 185lb barrier.  Here’s how I was able to quickly and easily get below the impossible 185:

My steps to lose weight

  • No sugar (I was already doing this)
  • Little to no carbs
  • No snacks between meals (my biggest challenge)
  • Eat once or twice a day
  • Aerobic exercise (walking 3 miles per day: I was already doing this)

Not only did I learn how to reach my goals, I learned much, much more about the dangers of belly fat and type-2 diabetes.

Some of my benefits:

  • My clothes fit better
  • I look much better (looking at some of my old photos is revealing about how fat I really was)
  • My blood sugar is within range (no longer am I borderline diabetic)
  • I breathe better while I sleep (reduced fat around my neck and throat area)
  • I feel better, think better and have more energy
  • I have a better self-image

One final note on the good doctor:  The thing I like the most about Dr. Ekberg (Web site) is that he gives you the logical and scientific reasoning for everything he says.  This makes it much easier for me to become motivated to think through and follow his guidelines.  Why?  Because it makes sense.

Of course all the topics and categories below are related in some way.

  • HEALTH – We need to maintain our good health for our happiness, to protect our families and to resist and defeat the propaganda war machine aimed at destroying our families, our culture, our traditions and our freedom.  Without your health, you don’t have much.
  • COVID – Just another tool used to destroy the financial viability and strength of the middle class while enslaving the rest of us in this orchestrated medical tyranny.
  • CRIME –  Many or most of the attempts by the enemies of man in their foolish rush to subdue the world for their own selfish interests depend on crimes against humanity.
  • POLITICS – Another tool to place the power of government under their control to advance  their hidden, duplicitous goals.
  • HISTORY – History is a well-established PSYOP used to inoculate the vast unwashed masses against a true understanding of the history and crimes of the ruling elate. The false history we are taught provides an inaccurate map of the territory in front of us since we know not what was behind and we are thus unprepared to recognize the bandits waiting along the road we are traveling to fleece, shear and render us.
  • MEDIA – A propaganda cannon mixing truth with lies to control our perception of truth and therefore our reactions.
  • EDUCATION – Used to advance the globalist agenda destroying our culture, critical thought, individual freedom and self-determination.
  • GLOBALISM – A false idea that all our wars were born from a sense of nationalism and this and other global challenges can only be mitigated or solved with a global control infrastructure.
  • PERSONAL – The good things we can to as individuals for ourselves.
  • MUSIC – Can be manipulative, healing, inspiring or a mixture.
  • HUMOR & SATIRE – Consisting mostly of MEMEs, this category can provide some comic relief to help cope with the challenges before us.  Effective ridicule can also damage these enemies of man and be a most simple means of communicating with the masses.

One important category I’ve left out may be the most important of all: the war against our culture

The Globalists’ Creed:

  • Sustainability via UN Agenda 21, 2030 and beyond
  • Man-made global warming and carbon taxes
  • Abortion on demand for any reason at any age
  • One world governance by a singular government or power structure – preferably the existing power structure
  • All 51 to 71 gender flavors recognized by FB
  • Vaccines are safe and effective
  • Supporting and promoting the lies, obfuscation and disinformation of the Mainstream Media cabal.
  • No borders with unlimited and unregulated immigration
  • Anti-male; anti-family; anti-white; anti-Christian

The Building Blocks for their unworkable New World Order:

  1. Common Core (Control Education)
  2. UN Agenda-21 & 2030 (Control Private Property Rights)
  3. Affordable Care Act (Control Health Care)
  4. Federal Reserve (Control Money)
  5. The Patriot Act & the USA Freedom Act (Control Civil Liberties)
  6. Free Trade Agreements like TPP (Control the movement of goods, services and people)
  7. Strong Cities Network (SCN) (Global Police Force)
  8. Global Warming (Install a Global Tax of $100 trillion)
  9. CFR (Control of US Foreign Policy and Geopolitics)
  10. Vaccines (Population Control)
  11. Main Stream Media (Perception Control)
  12. Open Borders  (destroy the idea of the nation-state)
  13. NATO (destabilize targeted countries)
  14. Supreme Court (pack the Supreme Court; undermine the rule of law)
  15. Terrorism and proxy army support (ISIS, Al Qaeda, Daesh, Al-Nusra Front, Wahhabism, etc.)

Below, you will find a list of links I found interesting and informative this past week.

COVID

A COMING COVID CATASTROPHE  The HighWire with Del Bigtree.  World renown vaccine specialist, Geert Vanden Bossche, gave a groundbreaking interview this week risking his reputation and his career by bravely speaking out against administration of #Covid19 vaccines. In what may be one of the most important stories ever covered by The Highwire, the vaccine developer shared his extreme concerns about these vaccines in particular and why we may be on track to creating a global immunity catastrophe.

“Crash Course” PCR Testing: What is It? How Does it Work? What Are Its Strengths and Weaknesses?  by John E Hoover

John Cullen LIVE, Without a Net..!!!

Tax receipts in Texas look healthy despite the COVID scamdemic … (download the csv files)

The Global Public Health Mafia – Follow the Connections! Amazing Polly Published March 20, 2021

CRIME

BROWN:  Looks like the DS may have to turnaround and eat their own vomit: This had to be hard on this criminal buffoon’s knees and shins. Ouch! This lifetime fraud demonstrates for the world he can’t walk much better than he can talk. An appropriate icon to represent the current state of the union.  Like most Americans, the world knows Biden is a fraud and does not possess the legitimacy or the support of the American people. The USA is a joke and everyone knows it: Chinese Official To Secretary Of State Blinken: USA “Not Qualified To Speak To China From A Position Of Strength”  This circus show was created by the established power structure, a compliant DOJ, FBI, Supreme Court, the MSM and the Three hyaenas in Big-Tech.

The Fraud

Bayer Exposed ( HIV Contaminated Vaccine )

This next story is sad, very sad.  This man was likely murdered because he would not yield  to the global ScamDemic hoax.  A true hero.   R.I.P. dear hero Magufuli… UPDATED: President Magufuli dead at 61  A corporate coup has removed Tanzania’s “Covid denying president”, and nobody should be surprised.

Look at the propaganda they are teaching our military:  Oh… poor little old Pepe the frog … and the Oath Keepers, seriously? The folks running our military are a joke.  Can’t even afford to recognize or identify our real enemies: too busy twisting themselves in knots trying to please their globalist masters.  In sum: our pitiful military are selling their birthright, their oath, and the US Constitution for a chance to lick the boot of the DS.

Norwegian media says some people “have to die” from coronavirus vaccines as a sacrifice to humanity

BROWN: You might also want to look into who owns and is benefiting from Genie Energy.  Syrian Oil Minister Reveals US Has ‘Pirated’ $92 Billion In Crude

The Deadly Precedent of the Waco Whitewash

POLITICS

The Biden pay-for-play frauds “can’t get no respect” … WATCH: China, U.S. Trade Rebukes At Alaska Diplomatic Talks | NBC News NOW‌

Tim Kelly interviews Josh Neal on American Extremism in Our Interesting Times
Josh Neal joins Our Interesting Times to discuss his new book American Extremist: The Psychology of Political Extremism from Imperial Press. Neal provides a clinical analysis of American culture and explains how mainstream institutions create and enable extremists of both the Left and Right.

Confronting Deep State Swamp Monsters: Solutions   In this episode of Behind The Deep State, host Alex Newman interviews John Birch Society Executive Field Coordinator Evan Mulch about his recent action confronting Deep State swamp monster Richard Haass, president of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to explaining a lot about the role of the CFR in the Deep State, Newman and Mulch talk about building relationships with elected officials and other leaders, always speaking the truth, and working in one’s community to educate the electorate. Mulch encouraged activists to ask their legislators to allow them to represent the legislator on the CFR’s ongoing webinar series seeking to recruit state and local officials into the Deep State’s agenda.

Deep State CFR Boss Haass Asked About “New World Order”
The New American

Ghost Town USA – Huntington Beach, CA Worldwide Freedom Rally by Jason Goodman

Great piece by Tucker… I rarely link or quote anything from Fox News since they have proven to be controlled opposition and a limited hangout, but Tucker did a good job here…

Katii Blood: “Beware the BAIZUO”  Tucker: Chinese government using Black Live Matter as a weapon against us

Interview 1625 – New World Next Week with James Evan Pilato

HISTORY

BROWN: If you read this book, you will never see WW2 the same way again…

THIS LESSON OF HISTORY CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN

MEDIA

Media Propaganda:  At this point, what on the MSM is NOT propaganda?  Almost nothing, but this is particularly egregious and in your face BS… credit to James Corbett …

The Biggest Mistake You Can Make in Life Today

EDUCATION

North Carolina School District Launches Campaign to ‘Disrupt White Culture,’ Urges Teachers to Subvert White Parents and Families

GLOBALISM

The Good Club | Grand Theft World by Richard Grove

Tim Kelley & Joe Atwill: Powers & Principalities: Episode 195 by Our Interesting Times
Bioleninism

TECHNOCRATIC TAILSPIN The Highwire with Del Bigtree

from /pol/ … Iron triangles resulted in the defense industry prioritizing blowing up their supply chain for political support and pork barrel spending rather than making good products, same with every other industry under the sun. The US government shields failing businesses and shitty planned obsolescence habits and MBA globohomo hiring practices but demands little to nothing in return

Opening the CIA’s Can of Worms

PERSONAL

BROWN: Pretty cool applet for translating bitmapped Russian (or other languages) images into readable and translatable text…

HUMOR & SATIRE

 

David’s Stack of Stuff (Sunday February 28th, 2021)

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | February 28th, 2021

Today’s Sunday edition is organized into categories – hopefully making it easier to find a topic that may interest you.

Solutions

The Neverending Story of Big Tech’s Censorship is ‘the nothing’ Atreyu was fighting…

Please remember to download any important videos, podcasts or articles to a local hard drive — not the cloud.  Big-tech’s censorship is in high-gear, so if you want to save our modern day Library of Alexandria from the Big -tech Arsonists, save frequently before Big-tech marks it for deletion.  Also, it is important to have your own physical books since physical books –unlike digital books– cannot be edited after the fact.   Coming from an engineering and philosophical background, I’m thinking of problem solving 101 to help protect ourselves from this coordinated attack on our First Amendment by the rich and arrogant who seek to control our speech and our thoughts.

Problem solving according to David Brown…

  1. First step in solving a problem is realizing you have a problem;
  2. Second step is accurately describing the problem;
  3. Third step is proposing solutions;
  4. Fourth step is implementing one or more of the solutions that actually addresses and solves the problem(s);

If none of your solutions work, rerun the process above after doing a retrospective.

Key to all of this –permeating every step– is visualizing the end point or target goal. The solutions proposed may or may not work requiring a retrospective and reiteration, also the solutions may depend on many smaller tactical solutions to achieve a larger goal. In any event, it is my opinion that our institutions are corrupt and therefore many of our people in positions of power are corrupt. No law or constitutional convention can fix a corrupt system. We must therefore ask how corrupt it is and what were the steps taken to corrupt this system; and finally what can we do to target and remove this cancer.

Here is another solution from Brent E. Hamachek entitled Understanding and Embracing the Role of the 21st-Century American Dissident

And James Corbett of the Corbett Report also provides many ideas on solutions under #SolutionsWatch …  https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=solutions

Big-Tech Alternatives

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Facebook Jail Again

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | June 25, 2020

Jail time: 30 day sentence to run from June 19 through July 18.

I had just gotten out of jail for another post and now I’m back in jail.  What was my crime this time?  I posted the following ‘anti-community standards’ statement on my Facebook wall:

“Remember: Democrats vote on November the 4th.”

Now, I thought this was pretty funny;  but Facebook did not.  In any event, this is the first time I have been put into Facebook Jail for something that could actually be considered ‘wrong’ by a rational person.  I guess this could be considered mean and an attempt to mislead our poor intellectually-challenged Democrats, but if they are this stupid / naive, perhaps they really shouldn’t be voting.  It did occur to me Facebook put me in jail because of a innocent typo or a date error, or maybe Facebook is discriminating against the mathematically challenged?  Is there a protected class for this group yet??? But of course I was trying to be funny and the humorless, knuckle-dragging  fascists at Facebook would have none of it.

One time I was banned for posting an historical picture of Hitler standing in front of the Eiffel tower because I had posted about a dangerous person.  You can read and see more of Facebook’s censorship in the below link by James O’Keefe @JamesOKeefeIII with Project Veritas. 

On the matter of privacy and freedom…

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | May 09, 2020

If someone has never experienced something, how do you communicate this something to them using language?  This is a real struggle for me.  When you become a father for the first time, or the first time your child calls you “Daddy”, there are just no words to describe this feeling.  Over the years, I have mused at my younger, single coworkers who were childless only to get married and become a father. I muse because their life is about to change profoundly and forever in ways they can never imagine.

Now, the only reason I bring up the father example above is to prove my point to those who can understand — to broach the next topic– and that topic is a sense of privacy, and a sense of freedom all wrapped up in one emotion. Like the father example, there is no way to explain this human condition until you have experienced it, but I will try. Why? Because this is the flavor we have lost and subject we are in the process of losing forever.

I was raised in the dusty desert of West Texas which is sparsely populated with few if any real areas of concentrated people.  I was raised in what I call Big Sky country, where most of what I had was not  trees, buildings or people but sky.  When and if we had rain, it was a big event and it was wonderful and soulful renewing and healing of the dry, cracked earth. The big dark grey and purple clouds full of moisture would march across the desert from horizon to horizon in all their beauty and glory spreading cool, moist air that would make the hairs on my arms and neck stand end-wise.  I felt a sense of health, well-being and joy.

I had horses and in the areas I frequented, there were few if any telephone poles or fences… it was just wide open spaces as far as I could see; and with this vast expanse of openness and sky, I had a sense of privacy and of freedom.  I knew of people who had screwed up their lives so badly,  they moved far away to the Northwest US to start over and rebuild their broken reputation … Starting anew and fresh — a second chance.

So today, with our newly minted surveillance state, none of this is possible. There is no sense of privacy and there is no ability to start over with a second chance. And the feeling of privacy and freedom is gone. Future generations will have not a single clue of what they are missing.

Wyman Meinzer’s West Texas

Where’s David?

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It’s been exactly 91 days since my last post, though I continue to post regularly on Facebook and to a lesser extent on Twitter.    A big reason for my absence is the various claims on my time preventing me from doing the reading and research necessary to have something worth saying on these pages.  Facebook however provides a quick and dirty way of jotting down thoughts or links that may be interesting.

During these 91 days, my Facebook account was completely removed, then restored and several of my posts were removed because I was not adhering to Facebook’s ‘Community Standards’.  No evidence or examples were given, I had just been a bad boy for some reason that I am never intended to know.

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The Baby Choice

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | Sep 24, 2016

The inversion of language

The inversion of language

My college philosophy teacher was and probably still is an atheist, yet he was an amazingly brilliant teacher … one of my best. Despite his lack of faith or belief in things unseen or unproven by his deductive method, he was staunchly anti-abortion. He reasoned as did I that once you minimize or devalue life at one end of the spectrum (very young) what logically will prevent you from minimizing it at the other end (very old); and once so done, one’s foot is squarely placed on the proverbial slippery slope. And where does this slope lead? Well it leads to further adjustments at either or both ends. So if we have scarce resources —which we always do– the value of a person prior to being productive for society would be less than say a person of working age and likewise the value of an older person incapable of vigorous work would be less valuable. So at some point, this logic trip leads us to the conclusion of stratification of value based on age; such that a society would be more interested in investing and/or saving the life of someone between the age of 18 and 35 say. Outside this range, you are less valuable and therefore on your own; or possibly a candidate for post-birth abortion. In fact this is already occurring. We have death panels with Obamacare and recent opinion polls on college campuses show a growing approval of post-birth abortion up to age five if it would save jobs. So there you have it. Ideas have power and they have consequences that on first blush you may not have even considered.

If you are religious, you can find many persuasive arguments against abortion from the pulpit; but if you are not religious, these arguments are unimpressive, unconvincing and annoying.  If you believe that there is no creator, and that we are just the end result of eons of random successful genetic mutations originating from a primordial soup, the idea of a fetus being just a blob of cells like your liver or spleen– to be removed at will when necessary or convenient– is intellectually reasonable if not entirely emotionally satisfying.  The non-religious would naturally wonder what the big fuss is all about and rightfully feel these religious nuts are encroaching on “my reproductive rights!”   Amazingly, however, faith has found a place in the hearts of the faithless…once the fetus is beyond the birth canal, umbilical cord cut and fetus viable; it somehow magically attains full rights of an individual human being and is so named.   This is part of a long list of “well-established” facts that comprise the credo of the secular world.  They reason that perhaps life may begin a bit earlier than this, but not by much.  To make things more confusing, we are told that no one really knows when life begins anyway; so we can now use this fuzzy construct to smudge any clear demarcation and add confusion to the ill-trained mind.

What kind of barbarian would deny a woman the right to control her own body or her right to practice birth control as she sees fit?   And what about rape, incest and the mother’s life or the quality of life of the infant due to poverty, genetic irregularities, malformations or congenital maladies?  Or you wanted a boy and not a girl or it’s just not convenient just now.  Surely you must see the logic of allowing women to abort their fetuses?   And, to combat the religious nuts, there are websites dedicated to proving that abortion is biblical just in case you are not so sure about all this Deity stuff.  So what’s the big deal?  The non-believer has every angle covered.  It’s just a medical procedure performed by a doctor and his patient.

So, if we are to make any headway on this debate, we have two choices:  we can convert everyone on the planet to agree with our particular religious views—unlikely– or we can take a logical, scientific view upon which believers and non-believers can agree.

So what is a fetus?  Is it a blob of cells?  Yes and no.  Is it a weed or a flower, trash or treasure? A series of electrochemical reactions or a blessing?  I think we can agree that the term fetus is a cold, disinterested name given to a very young human.  It is not a dog.  It is not a cat and it is not a liver or an abscessed tooth to be pulled or a hair or finger nail to be cut.  It is something different.  It depends on the mother for sustenance but it is not part of the mother and does not share its DNA with any other cell in the mother’s body.  Every cell in the Mother’s body has the same DNA as every other cell in the Mother’s body except the fetus or baby which resides within the mother’s womb…there by no fault of its own. Helpless, nature’s most vulnerable.  The baby possesses some DNA from the Father and some from the Mother but woven together in a very unique way.   No two siblings are exactly alike even identical twins differ in terms of gene expression and space and time…and none possess the same combination of DNA as the Mother.

So I think we can safely say that the fetus is not part of the Mother’s body in any logical since unless you also consider the male’s penis part of the mother’s body during coitus and could be aborted as well if not attached to a legally defined separate human.  But such conclusions illustrate the foolishness of the abortionists logic more than my crassness.  And we can safely say that the fetus is a young human though we may disagree if it is alive or not. Since we have no good definition of life this can be problematic.  Some viruses defy our definition of life by many accounts; however, most of us can tell the difference between a virus and a rock yet we get confused when discussing a fetus.

For the non-believer none of this may matter much anyway since the pain to the little human is short –if at all– and it benefits the greater good of the collective to reduce the population, but you must admit that this is a little more consequential than getting a tooth removed or a haircut and there may be some ethical question about killing an innocent life.  And for the agnostic or the ethically challenged… if perchance there is a Creator, I would imagine this creator might be just a little bit pissed at a people who chose of their own free will to pass a law that has resulted in the death of over 58 million of His most innocent ones.

Additional Reading from ClearNFO:  Opus 014: The Hoax of materialism

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