Hacking WordPress: wp-load.php, timezones and commenting from other pages w/ jQuery
WordPress is a popular blogging software, and it does some things well. The ability to download and install updates on its own is nifty. This is not 100% safe, but I use Drush for Drupal on occasion to perform the same task.
A recent project required integration between a WordPress blog and the custom site that I had to code. The same website had time-sensitive data that was to be published every night at midnight (outside of WordPress). An e-mail from the customer alerted me to the fact that this information was being published early.
Sure enough, a quick <?php print date('Y-m-d'); ?> before the relevant code did return tomorrow’s date. Odd. After some digging, it was determined that this was not a configuration issue. The offending code came from the WordPress inclusion file:
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
require_once('./blog/wp-load.php');
wp-load.php loads wp-config.php, which in turn loads wp-settings.php. This last file has this wonderful bit of magic:
if ( function_exists('date_default_timezone_set') )
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
Basically, it does not matter what your WordPress settings say, this is going to change your timezone to UTC (as long as you use PHP 5.1 or newer). In my case, I simply added a line on each page that includes wp-load.php:
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);rnrequire_once('./blog/wp-load.php');rndate_default_timezone_set('America/Phoenix');
Now that we have fixed a problem introduced by hacking WordPress, let’s do something fun:
<div id="block4">
<?php
query_posts('posts_per_page=1&post_status=publish&cat=1');
if (have_posts()) {
the_post();
?>
<h2>Today's BLOG: <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><? the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<?php
the_content();
print '<h2> </h2>';
$withcomments = 1;
comments_template();
}
?>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Iterate through Blog reply inputs...
var control = $('#block4 input:text');
for (var x = 0; x < control.length; x++) {
if (control[x].id == 'email') {
control[x].value = '<?php print htmlentities($fst->fetch_parent_email($_SESSION['id'])); ?>';
} else if (control[x].id == 'author') {
control[x].value = '<?php print htmlentities($_SESSION['first'].' '.substr($_SESSION['last'], 0, 1)); ?>';
}
control[x].type = 'hidden';
}
control.parents('form:first').append('<input type="hidden" name="redirect_to" value="<?php print $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>?task=blogcomment" />');
// Hide all of the labels for the above inputs
control = $('#block4 label');
control.css('display', 'none');
</script>
query_posts()finds the blog post we are interested inhave_posts()ensures that we have onethe_post()prepares it for our usethe_permalink()is a link to the blog post on the blogthe_title()is the post titlethe_content()– same ideacomments_template()shows the comments (when$withcommentsis set) along with a comment entry form, if your WordPress settings allow it.
Now comes the dynamic part. Because this was on a page that users had already logged in to, I decided to fill in the user’s name and e-mail address for them so that users can recognize each others comments. The h2 tag was a CSS hack to insert a dividing line between post and comments.
For reasons that I won’t name here, there was another text input that was named email so jQuery was used to find the correct HTML form items. #block4 is the containing div and input:text is the text selector.
After it sets the text, it hides those controls. This leaves the labels visible. Thankfully, jQuery can handle this case as well, and easily. It only takes two lines (that could be merged) to hide all the labels in the #block4 div.
One more trick that is performed is to modify the comment form to redirect to the current page after a comment is posted. Surely you can think of a use for this. jQuery is very handy.
EDITED: Typo.
Obscure Phrase of the Day
I ordered a couple of items online recently from separate retailers and out of curiosity have watched the “tracking pages” provided by each company. The updates were spaced out by almost three days each, and both companies used different methods to send their items to me.
The package that had a later estimated delivery date arrived first but it has a supporting role for the other package. This afternoon I checked up on the other one again (it was handed off to the USPS on Saturday) and these are the words that I was greeted with:
ARRIVAL AT UNIT
As I had just gotten home, I knew that it had not been delivered yet. So… what does this obscure phrase mean? After a quick search, it turns out that the package is at my local post office and should be here within a day.
Interesting phrase, isn’t it? The tracking hype hasn’t changed life a whole lot. Packages will still get to you when they get to you, but this was good for a laugh. It almost feels like the mail carriers are shrouding themselves in a cloak-and-dagger mystery while claiming openness.
The Security of Your Information
ThreatPost.com has a write-up about some new research into the world of digital security:
A paper by Forrester Research, commissioned by Microsoft and RSA, the security division of EMC, found that even though corporate intellectual property comprises 62 percent of a given company's data assets, most of the focus of their security programs is on compliance with various regulations. The study found that enterprise security managers know what their companies' true data assets are, but find that their security programs are driven mainly by compliance, rather than protection.
"Even enterprises with a high number of incidents are still likely to imagine that their programs are 'very effective.' We concluded that most enterprises do not actually know whether their data security programs work or not," the study found.
I wrote a poor rant last August about how horrible some of these PCI scans are at realistically evaluating website security. It seems like the big-name research is confirming what I said. Most companies are worried about compliance rather than real security.
College Diploma to Replace the High School Diploma
From http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb111/hb111-21.pdf (page 6):
That might be why outcomes have not improved. According to the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, within eight years of graduating, 51.1 percent of students in the high school class of 1972 had finished two- or four-year college degrees. In contrast, only 45.3 percent of 1992s high school class had done the same. In addition, while college attendance is up, overall adult literacy has barely budged. A federal assessment found that in 2003 only 13 percent of Americans 16 years old or older were ââproficient in reading prose, understanding written directions, or performing quantitative tasks. This dismal score was down from 1992, when 15 percent of Americans were proficient in prose and document literacy. To a significant extent, it seems a college degree may just be replacing a high school diploma as a sign of minimum competence.
How is that for a slap in the face? High school is useless now because college has taken its place. Oh, but you still have to finish high school to get to college and, no, it is not because of the technology changes.
If only this were an April Fool’s joke…
Lazarus and the Rich Man; A Battle of Wits
One of my friends is essentially a Seventh Day Adventist. I enjoy talking to him and it is nice to have him around when there is an ongoing discussion about Eternal Security. At the same time, we’ve had several discussions over the last year and a half about what eschatology (end times doctrine) the Bible teaches. As far as I can tell, neither one of us has swayed the other – but I keep trying.
Several weeks ago he asked me to review a sermon by Stephen Bohr on Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31). I’ve finally taken the time to do that. If you are interested and have an hour to kill, you can watch it on YouTube (parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6).
Bohr’s claim, as based on the teachings of Ellen White, is that this parable is borrowed from a common story among the Pharisees in Jesus’ day except that in their story the rich man gains Abraham’s bosom. They may be right that this was not telling of actual events that took place. I’ve leaned that direction for a while even though the official teaching I have grown up around says that the words “there was a certain beggar” are important.
In the sermon, he makes a faulty assumption that forks into two parts. He read the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30) and used it as a springboard to prove that the angels gather everyone from the same place. When he gets to Luke 16:22, he emphasizes heavily that the rich man was buried and that men are not taken to the fires of hell until after the judgement of all mankind.
He drew out the point that God does not punish before a fair and just judgment. It is a good thing to point out and I mostly agree with him about that.
Where I disagree most is in the assumption that the spirit is completely bound to the body. That is, wherever the body resides is where the individual members (eyes, tongue, fingers, etc.) of the person are at. Bohr says that this scene between Lazarus and the rich man could not take place until after the final judgment of all mankind. If that were the case, wouldn’t Lazarus’ brothers (verse 28) be in hell with him?
There is a union between body and soul but it can be broken. This is why death is such a horrendous thing, the separation is not how we were designed. It is a sign and reminder of what is wrong with us.
There is a small chance that Bohr believes the spirit can be separate from the body, but if that is the case then he believes the spirit is formless. I dealt with the topic of ghosts last year and there is sufficient information to rebuff this idea. You have Moses who was buried (Deuteronomy 34:5,6; Jude 9). How then did he appear on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:30) before the resurrection of the dead? He had body parts.
Either way that you look at this poses problems for his argument that Lazarus and the rich man could not have eyes, tongues, fingers, etc. before the resurrection of the dead. There are better passages to argue with Bohr’s purpose for this sermon. He made a couple of good points but overall I think he got too caught up trying to find the hidden meaning that “Christians misunderstand” and has missed the boat himself.
If you want a shorter version of the sermon on the parable that I agree more with, you might be interested in John Gill’s commentary on Luke 16:19 (you will have to scroll down). I haven’t yet found any evidence that Jesus was copying the Pharisees’ story but such things are always a possibility.
Twilight: New Moon; A Book Review
The book New Moon makes me want to not have kids. Or a girlfriend. Ever.
New Moon does explain some of the things that I wondered about after the first book. For instance, the first chapter (included in my copy of Twilight) offers some small help on where the Carlisle family obtained all of their money. The answer is that they have unlimited time and a sister who can predict the stock market. Fair enough. It would also make sense if they dealt in antiques.
The sequel to this vampire tale opens with a birthday party thrown by the Carlisle family for the main character, Bella. She accidentally gives herself a papercut while opening one of the presents and it sends all of the vampires into a bloodlust. Edward stopped breathing but still struggled to maintain his composure. His “mom” holds her nose to avoid being overcome with a desire to feed. Hmm, didn’t I already explain how Twilight vampires can hold their breath and not smell their surroundings? Some of the details given about their struggle to overcome the bloodlust are painful to read after that realization.
Also painful is Bella’s ability to figure out that her friend, Jacob Black, is turning into a werewolf. It makes me wonder what Edward ever saw in her. But wait, at the end of the book he is still in love with her!
If we dispense with the pleasantries, Bella is responsible for her father being majorly upset with both Edward and the werewolf clan that Jacob becomes a part of (which she called a “gang”). This includes her dad taking her side against several of his friends, some of whom he has known longer than his daughter. When she learns more details of what is going on, all that she offers is that she was “mistaken.”
Oops. Gag.
We also find much more strongly in this book that the reason Edward has avoided having sex with Bella was because he was afraid that he would not be able to avoid sucking her dry. A lot of people have been excited about their supposed chastity in the world of popular fiction but I fail to see why. It had nothing to do with keeping her pure until marriage.
This introduces yet another problem. Edward finally consents to turn Bella into a vampire – her wish from the beginning – if she would marry him. She is scared of that idea. The entire reason she wanted to be “turned” was so that she could be with him forever. Queue the eye rolling.
At the end of the book, there is a confrontation between Jacob and Edward. Jacob acted as spokesperson for the other werewolves. He reminded Edward of an ancient treaty between them that prevented any of the Carlisle vampires from biting any human. Bella did not voice her opinion that it should be alright since she wants Edward to turn her. At the same time she has absolutely no regrets about how this would alienate her from her best-friend-of-the-whole-book, Jacob, even more. She also does not think about how strong her desire to feed on her own parents would be.
Everything said, by the time of the sequel, the teenage melodrama is getting very far out of hand. I’m frustrated with it. Edward is a one hundred and ten year old fool.
What If, Texas?
I passed a bilboard tonight that seemed rather vague but church-related. It held the words “What If Texas?” They were designed to drive people to a website which holds some very good questions. I’d recommend you read it (yes, even if you don’t live in Texas). Here is one:
<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">**What if**</span> the Bible never says, Ask Jesus to come into your heart and you will be saved?
<p style="text-align: right;">[Read the rest >>](http://whatiftexas.com)
How's Your Day Going?
Got this from my grandmother:
Obviously rigged but still funny.
What is Required in the Census?
I haven’t posted anything of worth in the last couple weeks. Most of you have me on Facebook and know at least one reason for that.
In the next few weeks most people in the United States will receive census questionaires. As you might have already heard, they want a lot more information than many people are comfortable with. This video by Jerry Day is a little presumptive but it does make some very good points:[Video removed by owner on YouTube]
The Census Bureau derives its power from the United States Constitution. Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 states:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons [Modified by Amendment XIV]. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative;
Quite frankly, the Bureau wants a lot of information when it only needs to know how many representatives each state receives. If the Census Bureau is doing the representing for the representatives, why do we still need them?
I wouldn’t even give my representatives some of the information that the Census Bureau wants. I attended a small meeting with one the other night. At least he was able to tell me that derivitives of REAL ID will stop the illegal requirement to provide a Social Security Number (ie. Texas Administrative Code, Title 37, Part 1, Chapter 16, Subchapter B, Rule §16.40.c vs. 5 USC Section 552a, and check the dates on the Texas legislation) before you can legally drive on the road.
I still don’t trust him, or Real ID.
UPDATE: According to the SSA, what I was told by my representative is inaccurate. The REAL ID Act requires verification of social security numbers. They also say that the “Tax Reform Act of 1976” allows DMV to require SSNs. Great. Something else for me to read.
Passion For Marriage
As I flipped through my Bible, I came across a hand-written note next to I Kings 17:9. Here is the verse, which was spoken by God to Elijah:
Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
The note is a reference to Matthew 22:30:
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Let me try to explain if the connection is not immediately clear. Whenever any man, whether Christian or secular, lives with a woman we assume that sex is involved. In I Kings, God commands one of his servants to live with an unmarried woman. Doesn’t God know this is a recipe for disaster? Or did Elijah have his eyes on God where they belonged?
Marriage is not bad. In fact, as many people are fond of pointing out, God designed it (ie. see Genesis 2 and Song of Solomon). For all of how good it is, there is more to life than sex. Marriage itself is more than just sex.
I am not saying that you can live completely free and in whatever way you choose – without regard for appearances or consequences. Don’t forget Paul’s infamous admonition in Romans 14:13 that some are weaker than others:
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
What I am saying is that if you are sustained by God’s Holy Spirit, you should not be falling. If you read the rest of the I Kings 17, Elijah takes the widow’s dead son into a room by himself. Anyone familiar with our culture might combine stories involving priests and necrophilia. That isn’t at all what happened.
There is so much more that can be learned from the chapter in I Kings but since I do not know who will read this, I will stop there. You and I ought to be living Holy lives.
Oh, one more comment. My note and reference to Matthew 22:30 is not intended to be a statement about the Nephilim. ^_^
Amateur Night
I’ve had another blog post planned for the last two weeks, but the abundance of work has kept me from doing the research that is still required for it. In lieu of that serious post, here is one about today.
After a short night, I woke up to get started early. Some time later I looked at the bathroom curtains and realized they were much brighter than they should be for an overcast day. Cue someone opening the curtains. Moments later I strode outside (barefoot) to take a picture of my truck:
But this was only the beginning! I had four places to go in the afternoon, and it kept snowing.
Each stop took longer than it should have so I got back around 11 PM. It turns out to be a great time to be driving on icy roads because there are fewer people to hit. Only kidding. My truck hardly slid at all. The bridge was nice and smooth.
I suppose that isn’t too bad for the first time driving in (light) snow? Yes, I’m an amateur. However, the next time friends offer to teach me how to drive in snow – with snow around – I might take them up on it. The ice is fun.
Tonight’s casualties? The windshield wiper blades are done for. It’s a good thing they needed to be replaced anyway.
A Scripture Collage
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presenceas when fire kindles brushwoodnand the fire causes water to boilnto make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. Isaiah 64:1-3, ESV
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. I Corinthians 2:1-5, ESV
So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”
Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." John 8:13-18, ESV
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Exodus 7:10-13, ESV
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." Acts 8:18-23, ESV
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. II Peter 3:1-10, ESV
These passages may be a little disjointed, but they explain the way I feel right now. One logical argument is used against another and under the entire situation is a dislike for moral absolutes. But “oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”
In case you have ever wondered about Simon Magnus (from the passage in Acts above), he eventually joined a gnostic sect and traveled with a prostitute. Simon taught magic and that the woman was the incarnate form of an angel that had sought to expose the malicious god of the Old Testament. He even claimed to be the Messiah, of whom false rumors had circulated that he had been crucified. After traveling to Rome, an image of him was erected in the Parthenon among other Roman deities.
That man saw greater power than most of us today. He will be judged for it as others who see such things are, but I still want to see this world as the apostles did.
Geek Stuff: Rambo Has Found a Computer
While reviewing a PHP function for a website that I am working on, I came across this codified version of Rambo (as a replacement for unset()):
function rambo() {
// Get the victims and initiate that body count statusn $victims = func_get_args();
$body_count = 0;
// Kill those punksn foreach($victims as $victim) {
if($death_and_suffering = @unset($victim)) {
$body_count++;
}
}
// How many kills did Rambo tally up on this mission?
return($body_count);
}
Unfortunately I can’t use it on $_SESSION, which was the reason for the research. From the session_unset() notes:
Do NOT unset the whole $_SESSION with unset($_SESSION) as this will disable the registering of session variables through the $_SESSION superglobal.
I could modify the function but it is simply easier to use session_unset(). In other news, I’m working on a web server that disables all browser caching by default. This means that every single image is downloaded for every single page. It’s a great way to eat up bandwidth. My fix was to override the cache-control header by adding this to my .htaccess file:
# Check for new images every day, but only once...
<FilesMatch "\.(png|jpg|gif)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=86400, public"
</FilesMatch>
Women, Know your Limits
The search for a quote’s source lead me to an article from 1904 by “The Bachelor Girl.” The author had a longer excerpt of the quote:
By a girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house.
In childhood, a woman must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent.
[...]
No sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by women apart from their husbands; if a wife obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted in heaven.
A faithful wife, who desires to dwell after death with her husband, must never do anything that might displease him whether be be alive or dead.
[...]
Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the males of their families.
The clipped portions are arguments against the wife leaving her husband over various issues. You can read those from the full article if you are so inclined. So, any guesses on where it came from? The text sounds remarkably like what I read in Me? Obey Him? by Elizabeth Rice Handford (except about the woman obeying the man even after his death). You might be interested to learn that this quote came from the Hindu Code of Manu. The article went on to point out something else:
In the Representative Church Council of the Church of England recently a motion was made to allow women -- not to be delegates -- but to vote for the men delegates. Lord Hugh Cecil, son of the Marquis of Salisbury, led the opposition, on the ground that Paul excluded women from the deliberative functions of the early Church. Nevertheless, the vote stood 153 to 58 for the women. Paul seems to be getting more old-fashioned every year.
They have a point. If women cannot be trusted to lead, why should their voices be trusted in a democratic process?
Is There No Escape?
It does not seem that I will be getting out of it this year. Too many people in too many places are reminding me. So for the record, I am not 25. I’m 24.99. Got it? Good. ^_^
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Some of you already know that my pastor of the last two years has returned to his work overseas. An evangelist and long-time friend of the church has taken over the pastorate. He said this morning that he knew we loved him since we asked him to pastor for us even though the last time he was here, he had called us hypocrites.
This morning he also made a couple comments about suicide and I had briefly mentioned the topic in my last post on Anger. He spoke about the kind of darkness that pushes people to commit suicide. Then he contrasted it with the darkness that we face as Christians.
That wasn’t even the introduction for his sermon, so I’m going to insert some of my own thoughts. C. S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, said this:
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.
I’m going to abuse those words a little in order to apply them to other dark corridors of life. Christians have faced darker trials than many other people. They have seen the depths of depression and the heights of God’s glory. By those standards – both of them – we Christians of the western world are remarkably sheltered.
Jesus was in terrible agony over his impending death. You have heard about the drops of blood that came off of him like sweat (Luke 22:44). This was after an angel had appeared to strengthen him (verse 43). It took place even though Jesus already knew the outcome of his death. He had prophesied about his resurrection. He had spoken about his work to prepare a place for his followers.
Does that sound like agony that you or I face? Ignatius, a disciple of John, wrote these words as he was a prisoner on his way to Rome:
O that I were already with the beasts, which are ready to devour me! I hope that, ere long, I shall find them such as I wish them to be, that is, cruel enough to destroy me speedily. But if they will not fall upon and tear me, I shall kindly allure them, so that they will not spare me, as they have already spared several Christians, but will quickly tear me to pieces, and devour me. Forgive me for speaking thus; I know what I need. Now only I begin to be a disciple of Christ. I regard neither things visible nor invisible, at which the world is amazed. It is sufficient for me if I but become a partaker of Christ.
His impending death brought Ignatius to an entirely different depth in his relationship with God. Death is not the only way to approach a deeper understanding. At the beginning of Solomon’s Proverbs is an explanation of how dark sayings and wisdom are often hand-in-hand. Proverbs 1:4-6:
To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
Those dark lanes teach a lot. If or when you find yourself in them, don’t despair because of it. It is easy to see yourself as worthless, but even secular people have learned to take advantage of what can be learned. Robert Kiyosaki recommends in Rich Dad/Poor Dad that everyone go broke at least once before they reach the age of thirty.
When you face the dark places, do as C. S. Lewis recommended and don’t give in. You won’t really know how strong it is unless you beat it.
Though sorrows befall us and evils oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.
Anger
When you are younger, everything seems much bigger than it really is. Dad is the best dad in the world and can beat any other dad in town (or even Chuck Norris). You absolutely loathe broccoli. Ice cream can make your day. As you grow older, those emotions tend to mellow out. Some of them hide and wait to catch you off guard. During those younger years, my parents used to gently remind me that I couldn’t be angry forever. They sometimes quoted the second part of Ephesians 4:26 (paraphrase):
Don't let the sun go down on your anger.
I always knew that meant I only had a couple hours to forgive, and I knew that I couldn’t hold a grudge much beyond that anyway. Yeah, it was almost as bad as teenage girls. But suppose that the verse was intended that you should forgive yourself as well. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), Jesus said:
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
The reference to a brother having anything against you is using what was understood to be one of the two most important commands in Moses’ Law. Leviticus 19:18:
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
I realize that this is a little backwards, but there is one more verse that I want to bring up. Ephesians 5:28,29:
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
How can this be a good thing if you hate yourself? Paul goes on to say that nobody really hates himself. Even those who commit suicide will look for a method that is relatively quick. They don’t want to be reminded how important they are to themselves. No, I’m not thinking about suicide. My point is that sometimes you need to be reminded to forgive you. It is easy for our eyesight to catch on something that seems big and bad. Let it go, so that the sun can go down in peace – so that your fellowship with God can continue. God specializes in doing what you are still unable to. Isaiah 61:1-3:
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
That isn’t an excuse to blunder foolishly into the same mess again, but don’t keep reliving it.
Life Lessons from the Recession
All of you have probably heard about the special election in Massachusetts to cover Kennedy’s vacant seat in the Senate. It is quite literally all over the news and is being taken as a backlash against the infamous health care bill. The latest news is that Obama and other Democrat leaders are thinking about downsizing the bill:
Shorn by Massachusetts voters of their pivotal 60th Senate vote and much of their political momentum, the White House and congressional leaders are considering a more modest version of Obama's top legislative priority. It could focus on curbing insurance company practices like denying coverage to sick people and on helping low-earning people and small businesses afford coverage, officials said.
That is a little better, really, except that Obama chalks it up to less communication with his countrymen:
"If there's one thing that I regret this year is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people," Obama told ABC News.
He hasn’t learned anything. All he is doing is giving in to the current “emotions” that he finally sees. In his favor, he has tried to smooth over some of the waves by asking senate leaders not to push through any changes before the new Massachusetts senator can arrive in Washington. At the same time that the Democrats have been forcing this health care overhaul of theirs, they have also shown their distaste for big banks. Obama is expected sometime today to outline some new restrictions he wants on them:
"The proposal will include size and complexity limits specifically on proprietary trading and the White House will work closely with the House and Senate to work this into legislation," a senior administration official said.
Proprietary trading refers to a firm making bets on financial markets with its own money, rather than executing a trade for a client.
The White House has blamed the practice for reckless gambling on the U.S. property market which resulted in massive losses that almost destroyed the financial system in 2008.
This forced taxpayers to provide a $700 billion bank bailout to prevent the most severe U.S. recession since the 1930s from getting even worse.
Interestingly, it seems that the bank bailout probably wasn’t necessary after all. Obama still blames the banks for making baskets of loans. That deserves a little explanation. When you put money into a bank, they lend it to other people who need money. You can watch the movie It’s a Wonderful Life (relevant clip) for a good understanding of how that works. Sometimes the banks sell the mortgage of that loan to other banks. What they are really doing is selling the interest that will be paid back. These loans that are sold are put into groups. The idea is that if you have enough loans, there is no chance that everyone will default on them at the same time. This formula was intended to remove almost all of the risk from the investors. The problem that we ran into was that the recession was big enough that quite a few of those baskets did fail. So many people were unable to pay for their mortgages that the banks began to lose money. When the banks lost money, then all the people who had lent them money (ie. put money in the bank) were in trouble. Again, It’s a Wonderful Life demonstrates this process pretty well. What does this have to do with anything? The health care bill that has been pushed is, in its essence, a basket of health insurance policies. There is no way that enough people could be sick or unemployed to kill the system, right? Wrong. The housing recession was not seen ahead of time either – except by the “quacks” (read: Libertarians). It’s just a bad idea. Obama seems to see that the investment strategy is not fail-proof when it comes to banks, but he can not see it when we talk about healthcare. If you happen to know Obama, could you please pass this on to him? Thanks. ^_^
Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi, You're My Only Hope!
We aren’t really irreplaceable.
The Golden Compass; A Book Review
I’ve been told that Twilight gets worse as the series progresses. I’ll read the rest of the series as I have time. Anyway, after reading the first book in that series I turned to Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.
There were several waves made in 2007 from conservative reviewers when this book was turned into a movie. The production attracted several very big-name actors and actresses. The movie itself has been changed to make it more marketable and those reviewers worried about the effect that the book would have on young minds.
Philip Pullman wrote The Golden Compass as the first book in a series called His Dark Materials. It was intended to be a reply to C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia from an atheist’s perspective. Pardon the lack of references for right now, but a couple of the interviews that I read with Pullman at the time seemed to indicate he was more of an agnostic.
Another thing stated by the reviewers I read was that the books were harsher on the Catholic church than on the Protestants. Well… I can say that isn’t exactly true. Philip Pullman apparently knows church history better than they did. In the second chapter he speaks about how “Pope John Calvin” moved “the seat of the papacy” to Geneva. The book goes on to talk about how this move simply changed one superpower into a bunch of conflicting minipowers.
While this could be irony that was poked, because the world is supposed to be an alternate to our own, it is strangely similar to how some have described the Protestant Reformation. It has been said that the Reformation would have (and has) created thousands of mini-popes. I think the comparison was intentional.
Before going any further, it is probably a good idea to describe the book’s main character. The story revolves around a girl named Lyra. She is the daughter of a scientist/explorer named Lord Asriel and a woman named Mrs. Coulter. Lyra has been made to believe that Lord Asriel is her uncle and she is cared for by the staff of a college.
To make a long story short, she was an illegitimate child. Lord Asriel killed her mother’s husband when the man found out. It was viewed as self-defense by the courts but they were in a quandary over what was to be done because the parents had had an unlawful relationship. That was ultimately why Lyra was in the care of the school. As I said, it is a long story.
Each person in the book has an animal associated with them. The animal is limited in how far it can travel from its owner and is called their “daemon.” The daemon is a visual representation of that person’s soul. Until adolescence, the soul can change animal forms.
Through the course of the story, Lord Asriel has everyone’s respect and admiration. You learn that Mrs. Coulter plays political games and is part of an attempt by the Magisterium (the church) to experiment on children. Toward the end of the book, it turns out that the experimentation involves severing the child’s soul from their bodies. This severing is done to prevent inter-world transfers of Original Sin in the form of “Dust.”
Lyra, with the help of numerous other individuals, puts a stop to these practices by Mrs. Coulter and the evil church. From there she races off to rescue her dad who has been imprisoned by pay-offs from the church to halt his research into finding the source of the mysterious Dust.
This is where things become particularly troublesome. Lord Asriel kills one of Lyra’s friends to harness the energy that bonded the boy’s daemon to him. Right after the energy is harnessed to create a bridge between worlds, Mrs. Coulter appears over the hill top. She and Lord Asriel have a lover’s reunion before she decides that she cannot follow him to the other world.
The book ends with Lyra’s decision that Dust (Original Sin) must be good since everybody thought it was bad. She follows her father over the bridge, vowing to put a stop to things by herself.
If you’ve seen the movie, you know that the producers kept her friend alive.
There was one other strange philosophical conundrum in the book. As heavily as the Magisterium (church) is condemned, and sin seems to be embraced at the end of the book, there are several statements made by those around Lyra that they cannot coach her about her actions. Her destiny is to resolve this feud, but she has to resolve it on her own terms. They tell each other that all they can do is hope she makes the right choices.
High Calvinism teaches that God chooses people for purposes that he alone decides. They live their lives as though they are making the decisions but it was really He who chose the course. That is essentially what is taught about Lyra’s destiny. But then the book is a slam against Calvin. So if God doesn’t destine, who does? And what sets the parameters on that destiny?
It doesn’t make much sense right now, but I am pretty sure that the series will become darker before it ends. What else can happen when the good and bad guys who are seen by the main character both turn out to be equally evil?
I’ll read the next two when I find them in used bookstores and will report on them then. I won’t be supporting this series by purchasing it new.