So Long

This is the final post for Borg Blog.

I shall keep this blog up on the web for posterity’s sake and purpose of easy reference. But as I have found so many other things in life to be more valuable, both personally and in terms of real impact for good, I have decided not to spend another moment blogging here. This does not preclude me from starting a new, much more tightly focused, blog sometime in the distant future. But this is officially and finally it for Borg Blog.

Sayonara.

Stay out of the Shack

So, there is this book that is currently all the rage in fuzzy evangelical circles.  (Good rule of thumb: avoid the “bestsellers” being promoted in what were once called Christian book stores.  Gross blasphemies and outright heresies are sold a dime a dozen).  It is a novel called “The Shack.”
 
If you or anyone you know has either entered the Shack or been tempted too, please have them read this excellent article by Rev. Lane Keister (PCA):  “Job and Bunyan Versus The Shack”

Neither the Collective Nor the State is God-like

…but the vast majority of Americans — on both the left and right — are idol worshippers of the State in practice, in at least one way or another. Just saying.
 
Anyway, here’s a great blog by a great thinker of liberty, quoting another great thinker of liberty:

Neither the Collective Nor the State is God-like by Don Boudreaux

My colleague Walter Williams sent to me the following anecdote.  It’s probably apocryphal, but its point nevertheless hits home — namely, too many people forget that when government acts on Jones and Smith, the reality is that people, not some mystical and magical entity, is doing this acting.  If Smith is offended that Jones is allowed to free-ride on Smith’s efforts, the job classification of the persons who enable Jones to do this free-riding should make little difference to Smith.

Here’s the anecdote:

“Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read ‘Vote Obama, I need the money.’  I laughed.  Once in the restaurant my server had on a ‘Obama 08′ tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference — just imagine the coincidence.  When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need — the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I’ve decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.  At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient needed money more.  I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application. “

Phase Two of the Revolution Starts … Now!

All Backed Up

I decided over a month ago that I was too constipated to bother blogging much.  I’m speaking figuratively, of course.  Then I have been so busy it hasn’t mattered; I couldn’t blog much, or even at all really, even if I had wanted to.  But if anything I’m even more constipated now, even though I arguably have some time available. 

I’ll hold my tongue from saying anything more here that I might later regret, but I thought I’d just let anyone out there who isn’t similarly constipated know.  Not sure when, if, or in what form I’ll be back.  Ta ta.

Transitioning Themes

Please bear with me over the next several days, as I am in the process of transitioning this blog to a new theme.  This necessarily involves a lot of formatting and fiddling with things to get the blog to appear and function how I want it to.  So, don’t be surprised if one minute you see my old theme, and the next catch a glimpse of the new one; if one minute you can find what you are looking for and the next it seems to have disappeared.  Soon enough, we’ll be back up to full functionality!

Silent Owls (Signing off… sort of)

Go ahead and nix what I said here.  I’m jumping back out of the saddle — and this time, basically for good.

Any regular visitor to the Borg Blog is probably already aware of the fact that I terminated the “Borg Blog News Service” last week.  Long story short (since I am tired of long stories, as you will see), I am no longer interested in enslaving myself to a regular blogging schedule.  And the BBNS could be especially burdensome, with very little evident bang for the buck, so to speak.

My whole original purpose in setting up and keeping a blog was as a repository for my own thoughts and observations, much like a journal, though certainly not a diary. The secondary reason was to communicate things with those I am most close to: family and friends. “Cyberfriends” made and other incidental traffic gained from the World Wide Web in the process was to be a merely icing, esp. as I helped influence people to embrace the Lord Jesus as their savior and to reaffirm liberty and the Constitution in their political views.

My score on building traffic to this blog has been fairly successful, as this graph of last year’s visits versus this year’s demonstrates.  And some new “cyberfriends” have provided anecdotal evidence of at least minor Borg Blog influence in spreading the Gospel and the prudence of a robust constitutionalism in our body politic.

But the key thing has become increasingly clear:  For the most part, those closest to me — parents, brothers, in-laws, flesh-and-blood friends (both past and present), etc. - couldn’t really give a hoot about what I write here.  I don’t say that with bitterness; just as a factual observation.  As well, partly as a consequence and partly as a coincidence, I don’t really give a hoot anymore, either.  It just ain’t worth the stress and effort, to be frank.  Hence, the days of my intentional blogging here at Borg Blog — for the long foreseeable future, at least — are over. 

This blog will remain up on the web, and I am sure I will post things on irregular occasions for my own benefit.  But I have removed my stat counter, as  I will no longer give a hoot about my traffic, either.

For those actually interested in what my point of view on things might be, I recommend the many linked blogs and webpages at the bottom of this page.  None of these sites and people do I agree with 100%.  But taken as a whole, I will land somewhere along that spectrum of perspectives on any given issue. 

The archives will remain open for those looking for things I’ve written in the past.  But future comments, including to this here post, are henceforth closed.

So long.

On Vacation

As mentioned before, I am on vacation this week.  And that means that the Borg Blog is on vacation, too.

Postings — including the Borg Blog News Service — will resume next week, Lord willing.

Until then, do enjoy these last days of summer!

Posting Note: The Dog Days of Summer at the Borg Blog

These are the dog days of summer.  It’s hot.  Congress is out of session and the news is slow.  It’s hot.  Many families are on vacation.  And who wants to sit in front of the computer, given the high angle and intense heat of the sun in northern hemisphere, at this time of year?

Which is to say, in case you haven’t noticed yet, postings at the Borg Blog for August, especially starting now, will be more sporadic and less frequent until after Labor Day.  Oh, most days will still see news postings.  Every Sabbath will feature a Lord’s Day Meditation. And many other entries will still be posted fairly often. 

But there won’t be as much original material.  And next week — from Monday, August 20 to Friday, August 24 — I will be at the beach with my family, with a computer happily nowhere near reach.  So, consider yourself forewarned.  Keep checking in, since there will usually be something new here.  Just not as often.  Until Labor Day, of course.  And then the Borg Blog will be back to laboring along at the familiar clip.

P*rn and Its Effects

This is an important article and topic — men, Christians, everyone: read it.