Treatment of the Poor from Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 24:19 When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.

20 When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

The meaning of this, is that the gleanings of your income are for the poor and dispossessed classes. So the 1/10000 of a cent the average taxpayer spends on someone like me, works through this charity. We’re not supposed to be so greedy that we can’t lend a little to the poor, including through Law.

Deuteronomy 15:7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:

8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.

9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.

10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.

11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

So in the Jewish Tradition, they had sabbatical years, where they forgave all debts. The Seventh Year, was always a year for forgiving debts. So, this means that debts should be forgiven past a certain point. And because of this, the poor are to be loaned what they need, and pay back whatever they can when they are profited. And the rest is to be forgiven when the Sabbatical Year comes.

Laws Concerning Captive Wives

10 When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;

12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;

13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.

Sell Her H4376 - sell away,
A primitive root; to sell, literally (as merchandise, a daughter in marriage, into slavery), or figuratively (to surrender) -- X at all, sell (away, -er, self).

Make Merchandise H6014 - bind sheaves, make merchandise of
A primitive root; properly, apparently to heap; figuratively, to chastise (as if piling blows); specifically (as denominative from omer) to gather grain -- bind sheaves, make merchandise of.

“Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?”

On Good and Bad People

I think a good person doesn’t think one way or another about themselves. They don’t say, “Yeah, I’m a good person.” Because that's a sure sign they’re not. Nor do they say, “You know, I’m awful.” Although that’s often the first step to becoming good.

I’d say bad people don’t really feel like they’re bad. They feel like they’re good. I’ve met lots of people through the internet. Maybe about a score of a thousand of them. It’s the ones who cannot understand how evil they are—and you hear it in all of their words—that really are the ones who raise the hairs on the back of my neck. You know they’re dangerous… you can just sense it, and they’ll lash out at you for anything you say to them. I’ve ministered the gospel to a lot of these people, and surely enough, they’re always the ones that bring up the verses about slavery and genocide—because that’s the part of the Bible that judges them for their sin. And they’ll twist scripture in ways that totally distort its meaning, saying they have it all answered. And normally, these same people think they’re actually good. I honestly think if those people were good, they’d understand a lot more than they presume.

Or the ones who say, “There’s moral atheists,” are the same ones who will say that morals are subjective and man made, which begs the question, if something like “Cannibalism” were normative in the culture, and they ate human meat, would they still call themselves moral? The answer is yes they would, because they already justify murder through abortion and LGBT lifestyle, despite it being so gross. They include that in their knowledge of philosophy. It’s a mind game. “I know moral atheists” is as valid a statement as “I know moral cannibals.” It's just if the culture deems it, so it is, and they perfectly validate it through those means, throwing out the millennia of natural religion that saw those things as aberrant. For instance, in Greek and Latin they didn’t even have a word for the behavior, Paul had to literally make it up. That's how abnormal LGBT is. But, it’s being spun that it’s perfectly normal, but there’s been laws against it many times in history, often for the fact that it crops up, and usually perverts everyone and causes stupid thoughts to arise in people, that leads to selfish behavior, and then every human atrocity ever imagined.

So, generally, I don't think bad people have the capacity to know they’re bad. And I’ve always noticed the absolute worst sorts of offenders, truly believe they’re good people, or they call themselves “Moral.” I truly don’t see moral people anywhere. I did when I was younger, see moral people. But that was with Christianity. I’ve seen two moral Muslims. But generally, we’re all sinners, in need of salvation. And that’s who Christ is, is to take our punishment into His flesh, because no one is good.

Metric Versus Imperial

It's actually not a mess. Quarts, Pints and Gallons are perfect for portioning. Inches and Feet are based off of Cubits, which come from human hands and feet. Yards, Leagues, Furlongs and Miles have their reason for existing, as they're actually intuitive for the way spatial distances work. Pound and Fahrenheit, too, 100 Degrees sounds hot, whereas 37 degrees doesn't, and pounds are a good weight standard based on the Roman Libra. It actually makes people more intelligent, having that. It requires more work to get it right, so it makes it more likely that people will do the math correctly. And it's based off of human things. It's also pretty. Just saying, George Orwell talks about it in 1984, one of his characters are complaining about the metric system, and would prefer pints and quarts.

It's really based off of human needs, the Imperial System. Like our intuitive way of understanding things, in relation to our bodies. Meters are kind of sterile, but have their use I guess. Everything standardized into base 10. Like a Yard is more fitted to Phi, also, than a Meter. Because it's based on the human proportion, so it aesthetically looks more pleasing. A Mile, also, is more intuitive to human minds because it's based on yards, which are based on proportions made from the human body. It's more humane, and fits our minds better. People are creative, and certain things are fixed better in our minds. Imperial is more poetic.

I mean, actually, it might actually make a difference in the way our furniture and things work, too. Inches and feet are based off the human body, where meters aren't, so it develops more intuitive designs in everything we make.

I mean, for an astronaut in space, Meters might be better... but for a carpenter, trying to make something beautiful, Inches are better. Because it forms exactly to the human body.

Robert Burns

Cheerfully you sing your songs
A Scottish man, who did no wrong.
You sung of the working class
And nature's cruelty to the last
Measure of the broken bone---
Drunk men, poor men, some w'have no homes.

The Flowers In Bloom

On my walk, the Eastern Willow Herb
And the wild American Cannabis flower--yellow--
Are strong. The Daisies too. The Tiger Lilies are dying
And so is the Echinacea. Someone is harvesting Hemlock
To, probably, poison rodents.

Snapdragons and Hibiscus grow, in many fiery and floral colors.

The two children get their dragon toys.
They bloom and grow like the flowers.
At 4 they know not how to be alone
At 5 they can have some autonomy.

There dragons take them to the sky and sea...
They are in wonder...
Yet hopefully jealousy doesn't poison them
Or the hemp pipe;---which only make one more anxious
Nevertheless... the snake oil of the 21st century, we're back
To the days of peddling it because everyone would rather get high
Than taste the cherry of wine on their potatoes and meat.

The Flowering Trees

In the Fourth of July
The trees are flowering.
White, purple, pink...
Everywhere you go, the trees flower.
The big flowers...
I pray to the LORD
Not understanding why I am being smitten.
Is it because I do not wish to throw my pearls before swine?
Is it because I do not market, or schmooze 
Or live as a grifter and con man
Going door to door, peddling soap?
Why am I poor?
It is because I will not take advantage of someone.
That is why.
And the mad man tells me his ten thousandth of a cent
Is too much to pay for my Medicaid.
I committed no fraud.
Had I just sat around, and did nothing
I wouldn't be such a controversy.
Had I not learned math, or philosophy, or religion, or logic
I'd be smoking my medical cannabis
And all would be well with me.
For I would be in my place.
Either do nothing, and live like an invalid
Or work for enough to bankrupt me.
Those are your options in the American Economy.

Track of Work this Week

1. Wrote on the Progression of Summer. A continuous project that will be finished in December--hopefully.
2. Wrote a few pieces of Midrash.
3. Did more work on explaining my theory of P = NP.
4. Calculated the cost of someone on Welfare. 1,000,000 people on welfare, could be supported by 1 dollar of every American's tax money.
5. Worked on a theory of Unified Philosophy, that different people have different linguistic structures and connotations, and one should understand them, rather than fit what they say to a rigid academic standard.

Grace

We prune the orange flowers
Knowing we are doing wrong.
We produce less fruit...
Sometimes the plant dies by our pruning.
Yet, the rain still comes;---
The Earth still gives its scent;---
The birds fly by;
The Lightning fertilizes it.

Deep in our gut we know...
But we do it anyway.
And the flower does not produce fruit.
We poison its roots.
An unforgivable sin.
But, it is forgiven nonetheless,
Though we say, "I hadn't killed the plant.
"It was done the only way I knew how."
And we have knowledge,
And carry on unknowingly;
We do not know we had killed it
That with a little expertise
We may have saved the plant from extinction.
But, there is the lesson:
We pridefully go about our business
But grace leaves a little fruit on the vine
Despite our uncultured ways.