Premium increases deserve maximum transparency - Bozeman Chronicle editorial

My comments in bold.

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This editorial may take the award for Cluelessness of the Year. Almost every sentence reveals a complete lack of understanding of the issues and processes being discussed.
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When Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana recently pared back its planned health insurance premium increases from 65.4 percent to 58.4 percent after a state analysis found them to be too high, it begged an important question: If the company can get by with lower rate increases now, why was it demanding so much in the first place? (When you know you are entering a situation where negotiation will happen, do you  go in with your bottom dollar offer and leave no room to negotiate, or do you come in higher so that you can compromise?)

And how much less could it gel by with and remain profitable? (BCBS of Montana is a non-profit company.)

Cessationism - Proving Charismatic Gifts have Ceased - by Dr Peter Masters

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Followers of this blog know that we are continually searching for someone who can explain the biblical basis for cessationism. We have simple criteria:

1) Appealing to contemporary behaviors of charismatics is not relevant to the biblical case

2) Appealing to the silence of the Bible or history is not relevant to the biblical case

3) Suppositions or inferences about what biblical words mean is not the same thing as making the biblical case

Thus it falls to the defenders of cessationism to simply show from the Bible that the "supernatural" gifts of the Spirit ceased.

Here is the next contender, a Dr. Peter Masters. We were unable to locate a biography, but apparently he pastors a church in London. We don't know what his doctorate is in. Perhaps he can bring some light to the cessationism position. We will quickly discover our search to be in vain.

This is a long article. The author makes all sorts of a-biblical assertions. They mount up to the point where by the end we must call into question his competence as a teacher of the Bible.

We simply want the biblical case for cessationism. The author does not supply us with one.

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Ministering at Burning Man 2016 - By Rob Mazza

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!

Friends,

Burning Man is a place of absurdity, abstractions, art and artful dodging of reality. Then God tells us to go there, and Samaria gets all too real with its hunger and lies all intertwined in the serpents folds. We feel both the promise and the darkness. It’s Monday morning, our first day of business. Everything has been erected - the coffee dome, the kitchen, the 100 foot encounter tent. The beautiful art is in place and the Spirit Dream signs outside shoulder the dusty playa winds. We are inside the encounter tent, doing our first day orders from the King. Intercession is at a higher level (it will increase in the next couple days). We have just welcomed and protocoled our twelve new members of the tribe of thirty eight. Their sponsors have hugged and spoke into their lives.

Suddenly the familiar first line of the Christmas song comes distinctly from the street outside our canvas walls. The distinct sound of “O come, all ye faithful…” What?

The case against pets - by Gary L Francione

Found here. My comments in bold.
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This article is replete with moral preening. The author goes on and on about the "immorality" of eating animals and keeping them as pets without bothering to establish why these are immoral or why we should accept his imposed morality for ourselves.

With all the fervor of the most rabid religionist he demands we conform to his notions of morality on the basis that animals have rights exactly like humans. He anthropomorphizes animals, imputing to them a mental capacity to ascertain their lot in life.

If animals have some sort of set of rights akin to humanity, then what about plants? Bacteria? Viruses? These also must have a right to life, and the use of antibiotics and harvesting are by his definition murder. 

His plate of bean sprouts are living, taken unjustly for his own selfish use.

Taken to a logical conclusion, we must acknowledge that animals themselves are murderers. That poor wildebeest taken by a lion to eat is a victim. Even herbivores are guilty. 

If all life has a right to life, then all life is guilty.
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Bozeman's strong-arm enforcers - Fireman!

• Three firemen, an intimidating number, walked into my office last week, and it turns out they were there to inspect my office for compliance. No notice, no warrant, no knock. 
  
  My office is private property, so one would think that agents of the government would be required to comply with the Constitution. Amendment Four: "The right of the People to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."
  
  But apparently I am not secure. Why? Here's the Bozeman Municipal code:
  
  Sec. 12.02.140. - Inspections; persons authorized.

  A.

  The following persons are authorized to conduct inspections in the manner prescribed herein:

  1.

  Program administrator. The program administrator shall make all investigations reasonably necessary to the enforcement of this chapter.

  2.

  City officers. All police, fire, building inspectors, city engineers, zoning officials, and other officials designated by the city manager, shall inspect and examine businesses located within their respective jurisdictions to enforce compliance with the chapter.

  (Code 1982, § 5.04.140; Ord. No. 1273, § 13(A), 1988; Ord. No. 1948, § 10, 5-9-2016)

• Note that a whole gamut of people can be authorized by the city manager to conduct inspections. Now read the next section, which unconstitutionally empowers government to enter without a warrant or even probable cause: 

  
  

  Sec. 12.02.150. - Authority of inspectors.

  A.

  All persons authorized herein to inspect licensees and businesses shall have the authority to enter, with or without search warrant, at all reasonable times, the following premises:

  1.

  Those for which a license is required;

  2.

  Those for which a license was issued and which, at the time of inspection, are operating under such license;

  3.

  Those for which the license has been revoked or suspended.

  (Code 1982, § 5.04.150; Ord. No. 1273, § 13(B), 1988)

• The foot in the door is the city business license. Apparently the city grants permission to do business, and thus thinks it has the power to do whatever it wants as a result. 

  I suppose the city would claim that my office is a place of public accommodation, the same reasoning they use to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. However, the people who enter my property only do so by my permission. I do not accommodate the public. 

  In all cases, my customers and I are engaging in private, consensual, perfectly legal transactions. The is no public action occurring at all. Therefore the city has no authority to intervene in the private affairs of its citizens.  

"Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People." And Other Myths About Guns and Gun Control - BY DENNIS HENIGAN

Found here. My comments in bold.

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The author never gets around to actually refuting any of these "myths." 

You will find that I deleted long passages that had nothing to do with the supposed myths. That amounted to most of the author's article, leaving precious little material having something to do with the article's stated purpose.

Welcome to Your Local NFL Stadium: Home of the Sensitive and Easily Offended - BY CHRISTIAN CHRISTENSEN

Found here. My comments in bold.

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Christian Christensen represents himself as a journalist. As you read, remind yourself that this is a product of the current state of journalism.

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Given the norms of behavior in the stands, the brouhaha over Colin Kaepernick's dignified protest seems like championship hypocrisy. (Dignified? More like a childish stunt.)

A new NFL season starts tonight, and I’m going to let you in on a little secret: sporting arenas can be a rancid soup of racism, misogyny, homophobia, jingoism and all-around alcohol-soaked nastiness. So much so that the NFL and other major league sports have had to initiate “fan conduct classes.” (All of which is irrelevant. This is about Kaepernick's actions, not about unconnected fan behaviors.

The author suggests some sort of hypocrisy, but the people misbehaving at games would need to be the same people who are criticizing Kaepernick in order for there to be hypocrisy. The author provides no evidence this is true.

At no point does the author establish that the criticism of Kaepernick is inappropriate, unjustified, or beyond the pale. Quite the contrary, he doesn't even offer evidence or quotes from Kaepernick's detractors.)

Come Up Here - an exploration of vision and the presence of God

It seems that we are regularly revisiting the idea of vision in our prayers. It was several months ago that the words "lift your vision higher" came to our minds, and we reflected on the idea that our vision as Christians is frequently on our circumstances. But we should be looking up!

Ps. 123:1 I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven.Ps. 121:1-2 I lift up my eyes to the hills — where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

He helps us to look up, because our human strength fails us:

Ps. 3:3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.Ps. 27:5-6 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock. 6 Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me…

The spiritual man looks up

Gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte has taken Montana politics in an ugly direction.

I receive up to 5 email solicitations from the Democrats per day. The latest one said this:

"Gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte has taken Montana politics in an ugly direction." -- Bozeman Chronicle Editorial Board

 In a blistering editorial, Greg Gianforte’s local newspaper took him to task for his latest fear-mongering attacks.

Show you agree and donate $15 to send a message to Greg Gianforte that these kinds of scare tactics won't be tolerated. 

Here's the ad in question:

Paradoxes, dilemmas, and contradictions in the Bible - Think like a Hebrew

There's a lot of wrestling going on in the Church with various doctrines. It sometimes gets to ridiculous proportions, with claims of heresy flying about. There are various groups taking on the role of Doctrinal Police, micro-examining every little statement of suspected infidels. 

This is the intellectual mindset that descends out of the Greek tradition, more generally termed western thought. By contrast, the Bible is a Hebrew production. The Hebrew mindset is completely different than the Greek one: