As a Country, We Worship the Bronze Snake

 ⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. 

Numbers 21:8

Was this snake magic? Something that Israel needed to survive in a crazy world? Reality states that the snake came upon them because they didn't trust God:

 
  They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea,^[c] to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
⁶ Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

Numbers 21:4-6

Later, the Snake was destroyed. 

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah^[a] daughter of Zechariah. ³ He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. ⁴ He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.^[b])

2 Kings 18


The snake was never meant to be worshiped (they were burning incense to it). Or depended on as a healer. Reality is the God is the healer. The snake never had power, it like anything in this world, is subject to the power of God.  The function of the snake was to force the people of Israel to do what God told them to do, act on Him and trust Him. The weird thing is why were there snakes in the first place. Get sick, and I think you will know the answer. 

Sickness and pain is part of the curse. But for me, it is a constant reminder that we are mere mortals that are destined to a better world. Pain reminds me that I should not be happy with this current body, sickness reminds me that my strength comes from God. 

Sometimes I think I'm a little too attached to this life. Death should be bittersweet. To leave people behind that we love is bitter, to move on to eternity is sweet. Sometimes when people die, it has the same effect as when people quit a really fun game mid-game (hey, you were winning, you can't just put your pieces in the box and go home!). But we should harbor no hard feelings against them when they are moving on to where they need to be, and we should fill the vacuum and continue on till it is are time to leave too. Perhaps asking someone in the room to play for us, and they continue on. 

The other side of this story is fear. God's children were fearful. Fearful that God wouldn't take care of them,

“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Wen you think things are bad, they could always be worse. But whether you are in good times, or bad times, we should never have a spirit of fear. Our only fear should be of God (perhaps we lack that), and trust should replace fear of all other things. 
 
 Now you may be asking, what are we worshiping as a bronze snake? The answer lies in the image below:

We worship medicine. We worship our medical insurance companies. We fear sickness, we fear death, we fear going bankrupt. I'm not sure why, but we do, we all do apparently. We fear it for ourselves, along with every other person in our country. Why do you think Obamacare was passed. If we didn't think it was an issue, then we would never had thought to pass legislation on it. But here we are, we were so fearful of everything to do with the medical industry that we willingly gave it over to the hands of the Federal Government. I think we treat the Federal Government like God. We fear it, but we worship it too, by giving it power and giving it our money, and control of our lives, control of our children education, control of our safety.


We are eating the meal we prepared for ourselves. It will be bitter and turn to dust in our mouths. I would like to think that God will laugh when we try to swallow it. But I think that is what I would do, He will watch in sorrow. After all, we have free will, and He won't intervene in our own stupidity. 

There's a lot more I could say, but I think I will save it for another blog. Right now I just want to state that regardless of the mayhem this country may face in the future, I refuse to be subject to a spirit of fear. If I can't afford healthcare insurance because of this legislation, so be it. I will do without, and trust God to take care of me (after all, it wasn't till post WWII that healthcare insurance existed, and all the people before that survived, or did they). I will pay for what I can if I get sick, and if I can't afford it, then I will simply die. If you don't want me to die, then perhaps others will help out. Like the Amish do. And if I'm not worth, I will just decrease the surplus population. Put in my game pieces, and move on to glory. Cuz if you think about it, that's were we should want to be anyways.

New International Version (NIV)

The Helper of Israel

41 “Be silent before me, you islands!
    Let the nations renew their strength!
Let them come forward and speak;
    let us meet together at the place of judgment.

² “Who has stirred up one from the east,
    calling him in righteousness to his service^[a]?
He hands nations over to him
    and subdues kings before him.
He turns them to dust with his sword,
    to windblown chaff with his bow.
³ He pursues them and moves on unscathed,
    by a path his feet have not traveled before.
⁴ Who has done this and carried it through,
    calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord—with the first of them
    and with the last—I am he.”

⁵ The islands have seen it and fear;
    the ends of the earth tremble.
They approach and come forward;
⁶     they help each other
    and say to their companions, “Be strong!”
⁷ The metalworker encourages the goldsmith,
    and the one who smooths with the hammer
    spurs on the one who strikes the anvil.
One says of the welding, “It is good.”
    The other nails down the idol so it will not topple.

⁸ “But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    you descendants of Abraham my friend,
⁹ I took you from the ends of the earth,
    from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

¹¹ “All who rage against you
    will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
    will be as nothing and perish.
¹² Though you search for your enemies,
    you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
    will be as nothing at all.
¹³ For I am the Lord your God
    who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
    I will help you.
¹⁴ Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
    little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
    new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
    and reduce the hills to chaff.
¹⁶ You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up,
    and a gale will blow them away.
But you will rejoice in the Lord
    and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ “The poor and needy search for water,
    but there is none;
    their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them;
    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
¹⁸ I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
    and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
    and the parched ground into springs.
¹⁹ I will put in the desert
    the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set junipers in the wasteland,
    the fir and the cypress together,
²⁰ so that people may see and know,
    may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ “Present your case,” says the Lord.
    “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
²² “Tell us, you idols,
    what is going to happen.
Tell us what the former things were,
    so that we may consider them
    and know their final outcome.
Or declare to us the things to come,
²³     tell us what the future holds,
    so we may know that you are gods.
Do something, whether good or bad,
    so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
²⁴ But you are less than nothing
    and your works are utterly worthless;
    whoever chooses you is detestable.

²⁵ “I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes—
    one from the rising sun who calls on my name.
He treads on rulers as if they were mortar,
    as if he were a potter treading the clay.
²⁶ Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know,
    or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’?
No one told of this,
    no one foretold it,
    no one heard any words from you.
²⁷ I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’
    I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news.
²⁸ I look but there is no one—
    no one among the gods to give counsel,
    no one to give answer when I ask them.
²⁹ See, they are all false!
    Their deeds amount to nothing;
    their images are but wind and confusion.

 

We've Been Lied To!

We've been lied to. Yes we have. And it's partly our fault. You see, when scientists get together and come up with data, then publish it as truth, then the government takes that data and forces it on the population, via their biggest propaganda outlet (the public schools), who's to be blamed... US! We ate it, we devoured it, and it has lead to thousands and millions of deaths throughout our country. Horrible deaths, long lasting and painful deaths. If a country had come in and conquered us and and put this on us, we would have rebelled, but reality states we did it to ourselves. We did it while laughing, we did it with merriment. We poured the arsenic into our own goblets.

By now you must be thinking, what the heck is she talking about!? Well, I'll show you! THIS:

 So you recognize it, eh? Yes, this has been the source of the American demise, based on data from scientists from the post WWII era. Just looking at it makes me not hungry. The main thing I have to contend with it is, well all of it. The whole thing is off. Most people say that the bread and plant group should be flipped. But that's not the biggie. It's the fat's and sugars. First-off, fats and sugars are not equals. SHAME ON THEM! Fats are soo much better for you than sugar. And then not all fats are created equal, and neither are all sugars. Cane Sugar is better for you than corn syrup, maple syrup is better than cane sugar. The comparisons go on and on.

But fats is the important one. Not all fats are created equal, and human made fats are definitely bad for you, where God made fats are very good for you. New research that has come out says MUFA (monounsaturated fats) are very good for you, along with coconut oil. Check it out. I'm not going to cite anything because you have a search engine and can do your own research for you. But if you check it out, we should be consuming a good chunk of good fats every day.

So after people started getting diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and caner, at rates never seen before, they figured something might be wrong with their chart. So they made a new one, a better one, that one:

 Which is slightly better, but did you notice something missing? Yes, that fats! *face palm*
If we try to eat like this, we would be eating so much to match every category. People don't eat like this! It doesn't make sense!

Maybe someone figured that out, so they came up with this:

You know what really bugs me? That dot gov part! So does every politician eat like that? With a glass of milk at every meal? I laugh, and laugh, and laugh! Not laughter of amusement, but that empty laughter that is followed by outrage! HOW DARE THEY! Really, HOW DARE THEY TRY TO TELL US WHAT A HEALTHY CHOICE IS! May their plates be cured for eternity looking like this! Stupid, stupid, stupid! All of you are probably wondering why I am spazzing out. Try cooking a meal like this. You will end up eating around a 1000 calories. No joke. Not to mention, it does not leave any room for real cooking. And fats are not listed. Not to mention, cheese is left out, yogurt are left out, alcohol, tea, water... and you really don't have to eat that many grains every meal. I'm sure you are getting tons of fiber if you are eating that many veggies and fruits. 

You know what really, really bothers me (yes Caitlin, that dot gov label), besides that. Why are we dividing vegetables, fruits and grains into separate categories? Last time I checked, they all come from PLANTS!  And really, they all function very differently, each bursting with its own nutrients. You as a consumer of food should be very aware of how every little morsel  affects your body once entering your mouth!

Okay, enough of my rant. My solution is the Caitlin Consumption Chart:

See, this is really easy to read, and leaves tons of room cooking creativity. Not to mention, you have to take responsibility of figuring out how much you should be eating energy wise. So every meal should look like this approximately. If you are going to eat three meals, and a snack, and you should be eating 2000 calories a day, then every meal should be 500 calories.

Note, the category of veggies, fruits and grains are missing. They are part of "plants." Not to mention, it looks a lot smaller than in other charts. That's just because I changed the scale. We are talking calories folks, do you know how much broccoli you have to eat to reach 125 calories? Over two cups! Where one potato will get you there. You can also work your breads, pasta and oatmeal into this category. Note, you should be switching it up (but your smart like that). In this category, you should also throw in fruit juice and alcohol. They come from plants, and even though they are a beverage, you need to watch your calorie intake of these items. In that plant category you should also be eating herbs and spices.They are very important to our health. Take time to look up an herb every day, and try to work it into your daily diet. Garlic is my number one herb I'm eating right now, and boy, do I feel like I have more energy.

I could have made protein the "Dead Animal" quartile, but that may have freaked you out. Not to mention, there are other sources of protein out there, mainly eggs and nuts. This is a very important part of your meal. Without it you will be hungry within an hour. You want your meal to make you full till your next meal. Snacking isn't a problem if you are satisfied. One egg is about 80 calories. EAT THE YOKE! We do not want to limit calories with this chart, we want to eat GOOD CALORIES! The yoke is what the baby chick eats while turning into a chick! I figure that it was good for you when I was 6. Growing up, studies said it had cholesterol, which since then has been proven to be good cholesterol *face palm* go with what makes sense, not what studies say. Other meats, a half a chicken breast is about 150 calories, a filet of tilapia  is about 100 calories. You can look up your other favorites.

Dairy. We love dairy. And it has been shown to be good for you. Moderation is not key, eating the amount you are suppose to is key. Yogurt is 174 calories per cup, 2% milk is 122 calories per cup. Eat what you like, just make sure you calories are adding up correctly.


Now addressing fats! YUM! This is what adds flavor to your food. I really think fats are a gift from God to mankind. Olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, dark chocolate, nuts, the list goes on and on! If you are going to bother to eat, make sure you eat some of these! Cook your meat in olive oil or coconut oil. Drizzle it over your pasta or salad. Add chocolate to a smoothie... with peanut butter! YES YES YES!  Add avocado to your sandwich.


Now that you have read this, do you feel empowered with your cooking? You should be! Remember, the chart is a guideline. You will never end up exactly like it, and that's okay. All that is left is to give you some examples on how to execute your new found knowledge.

Meal Examples: About 500 Calories Each

Egg Sandwich
1 egg (cooked the way you like) 80 calories (protein)
Bread (just choose 100 calories worth) 100 calories  (plant)
1/2 cup Avocado, 100 Calories (Good Fat)
Slice of Cheese, 80 Calories (Dairy)
Add lettuce, tomato, herbs, or sprouts to your liking. 

Smoothie
2 cups of fruit (try for 100 Calories worth) 100 calories (plant)
1 cup milk, 120 calories (dairy)
Ice, zero calories
100 calories of dark chocolate, 100 calories (good fat)
100 calories of Greek yogurt, 100 calories (protein)

After Dinner Snack
Glass of Mascato, 150 calories (plant)
100 calories of cheese, 100 calories (dairy)
100 calories of crackers or toast, 100 calories (more palnt)
1TBS olive oil with herbs (basil, garlic, rosemary, oregano), 120 calories (good fat)

The Parable of Two Farmers

The Parable of Two Farmers 

Once there were two farmers. One was old and wise. He tended his plants with care. Though he only had a small farm, he was known for selling the best fruit. They were always perfectly ripe, but not too ripe. Each piece had wonderful flavor and were desired by all the towns people. The other was a younger farmer who had a very large farm. Most of his fruit was delicious, and after harvest he made a lot of money off of his abundant crop. However, there was always some fruit that was rotten, and others were unripe. He was always disappointed about these few fruits that went to waste.  knew about the fruit of the Old Farmer. He too wanted every single piece of fruit to be perfect. 

The Young Farmer went to the Old Farmer to ask for advice, "how can I have perfect fruit like you?" The Old Farmer chuckled and replied that his farm was too large to have perfect fruit. "You must know every piece of fruit in order for every piece to be perfect, you must spend time with the fruit as it grows."  The Young Farmer was grateful for the advice, and decided to try to make his fruit perfect too. The next year the Young Farmer had the same results as the previous year. Angry, he went to the Old Farmer, and said it did not work. "Some of my fruit is rotten, and some are still not ripe!"

 The old farmer lead him to is own fields. You could tell that there were still some green fruits hanging on the vines. "The rotten fruit you did not pick soon enough. They were perfect weeks ago, so I have already ate them or sold them. These others are not ready yet, I will pick them when they have turned red. It is not their fault they are still green, in time they will be just as delicious as the ones I picked today. Every single piece of fruit is perfect if you eat it when it is ready. If you do not eat it when it is ready, you will think it is inferior, but it is not. You just failed to recognize it at its best."

The Young Farmer was astonished. His goal was to make a profit, to have every single piece of fruit ready when the hired hands came. "I do not have time to let every single fruit ripen when the rest are ready! Nor do I want to hunt for those who are ready early! I would be better off letting the early ones rot on the vine with the late ones. They can be left for the birds."

The Old Farmer smiled, "My goal was never to make money as a farmer, it was to eat delicious fruit. To do that, I must wait for the fruit to be perfect. I cannot rush the ones who ripen later, or hold back the ones that are early. I enjoy every single one at its best. Fruit is never inferior if I pick them when they are ready. Every single one is perfect."

Interest Rates and Insurance Rates

Paying interest. Debt. Payments. These words for many people are horrible things. I really think most people walk around in the world thinking that loans are a horrible thing, being in debt is a horrible thing, and that companies who charge interest are evil.  I really blame a lot of Christian teachings for creating this type of mentality. Debt is like anything on this earth, you have to use it responsibly. Just like wine is not evil, debt in itself is not evil. But both, when use irresponsibly, can destroy peoples lives.

So what is responsible debt? Responsible debt is debt obtained to make you more productive in the future, simply put, by obtaining this debt now you are actually making yourself more productive in the short-run, thus making more money in the long-run. For example, I took out a $8,000 to complete grad school. I needed it to cover housing costs. So I completed a nine-month grad school program, thus upping my salary potential immediately after graduation. After graduating, I started paying $100 a month for the next 10 years (and that's when most people choke on anything they're eating). But I have to say, it is worth it! If I had taken a break to work, I would have lost time, not to mention I would have to quite working to go back to school, etc. And since I have the degree, $100 a month is much more affordable than if I didn't have it.

What would be an example of irresponsible debt? How about taking out $100,000 for a B.A. for a degree that will only give you about $36,000 a month (anything degree that ends in "ology" or "studies" falls into this category). So you are making $3,000 a month, and you are paying $1,000 a month for the next 10 years to pay off that debt. Just ask yourself if you could be making $2,000 without the degree... probably.

So you get the picture, I will go deeper into responsible and irresponsible debt analysis later. What I want to get into is interest and insurance.

What is interest? I is the price of using money today, instead of waiting till next year. That's it. You may have the money next year, but you need to finish college this year, so you take out the loan, and go to college today. Well someone didn't get to use that money this year because you were using it.  Nothing's free. You need to compensate them for using their money. And that is interest. You don't get mad paying for milk you buy at the store, you shouldn't get mad about paying for money that you don't have today.

What is insurance? It is the price of not having to pay money in the future. Say what?! Yes, think about it. It is a hedge against having to pay a huge lump sum in the future giving something happens. And obviously, because you may never use that money, your insurance payment is based on the probability that you will. In essence, you are throwing your money into a hole. But everyone does it. AND THEY LOVE IT! A lot of people look at what health insurance package they get with their job. We insure our house, we insure our cars, we insure our jewelry.... Its a huge chunk of our salary... and we will probably never actually use it. Probably. We are all living in fear that we might. So we happily pay monthly to ease our minds.

Now I'm not saying we should stop paying insurance. But I think we need to re-think what we are insuring. Yes, I need to insure my house, because I can't afford to make two payments on a house (one get's destroyed, so I have to buy a second one, and pay off the first one). But what if I could? Should I live in fear that my house would get destroyed?

What about our health care? Nothing is more complicated. You have to pay $150 a month, and that gives you a $6000 yearly deductible, but if you go do the doctor for a visit, you have a $20 co-pay, and if you get a prescription its a $7 co-pay, and you get a free yearly checkup, etc. And we pay over $1500 a year for this? I'm young. I don't go to the doctor, and when I do, I think I would probably come out paying less than $1500 in a year. 

The fact is, for young healthy people, our insurance should look like this: If you end up paying more than $20,000 over a 12 month period, call us, and we will pick up your tab. Why $20,000? Because that amount I could afford to make payments on, with interest for about $350 a month, for 5 years. I would actually end up paying for the medical care you use. You would also shop and negotiate a lot more (so costs would go down). And not to mention, your insurance premiums would be a lot lower. How much lower, well it would be based on the probability of you going over $20k, my guess that is pretty low.

So why don't we do this? Because it is not lawful for insurance companies to offer insurance like this. Yes, we needed healthcare reform. We needed less regulation, not more. Here lies another example of how the free market didn't fail, but rather it was messed with, and the situation got worse, so we continue to regulate it hoping to fix the darn problem.  And of course, it just makes it worse. So what is the source of our problems?

Inequality of Labor and Wages Part 1

What is a minimum wage? It's an artificial level that the Government has imposed on society, stating the minimum value of anyone's life for one hour. The value of one hour of labor. Your soul exchanged for goods.

I really like that last one! But let's look at this one "The value of one hour of labor." That is what it is, you work for an hour, and here in California, we have to give you $8.50. So here's the question, is the average person worth $8.50 an hour? Is the the product of their time going to give me, or more than $8.50? If it will not, then my simple option must be to NOT EMPLOY THAT PERSON. Oh, really, I hadn't thought of that... But I assure you that every business has. And in actuality, the employer pays more than just the $8.50 (taxes, health care, etc). So next time you look at the unemployment rate, just think to yourself, is it possible that those 11,000,000 people are simply not worth $8.50?

Yes, it is a little more complicated than that... but not really. So what is the source of our problem?

A Yummy and Healthy Post

Let's take a break from Economics (though I am sure I will reference this post sometime later when brain-washing you into believing my ideologies). This is one of those "thousands of other things" I do posts. I like cheese (she does like cheese), and despite what the stupid media put out there, it is actually quite good for you. Not to mention, it is just yummy! Think of the evolution of food, and here we are today with cheese still making it through the ages. Though I'm sure our predecessors enjoyed a much more delicious version than what we have. There is something about making cheese fresh from your own animal, in your own kitchen, accented with the herbs in your garden, that a cheese factory can't possibly capture. Not to mention, I'm starting to wonder what else is in there that we don't know about! So to match my attention span (last time I tried to make hard cheese, I ate it before it was cured), I made farmers cheese. A soft cheese that is good with almost anything!

The big bonus of making your own cheese is the pretty picture you get to take out of your creation. It just looks so much better with the cheese cloth there on the wooden thing. The cute little bowl is full of olive oil. I put in it crushed fresh garlic, oregano, basil and rosemary-- all from our garden. I looked at several recipes for farmers cheese, and then did my own thing. I always believe in taking a pirates approach to life "they're more like guidelines anyways." So I ended up putting in a half-gallon of whole milk into a pot, and heated it up. I was suppose to get to 180F degrees, but who knows if it did. Then I put in a table spoon of vinegar and two cups of butter milk. It was then was suppose to separate. When I poured it into the cheese cloth, I got about a half-cup a cheese, and some milky-looking run-off. My memory told me I should have got a lot more curds, and the whey should have been yellow-gross looking. So I re-heated it mixture, and it separated! YAY for my own thing! From there I put it into the cheese cloth and let it drip-drain. I salted it with my pink salt, and voila, yummy cheese!

For lunch we had the sourdough bread, the olive oil mixture, and white wine. It was a very satisfying meal. Ben was freaked out because that cheese took a half-gallon of milk. So here comes our economics lesson. Let's compare costs. Gallon of milk, versus that much cheese. Well, for a high quality cheese like that, the home-made version won.  Now I just need to go buy a cow so I can make a legit version of it.