chris – Something About Everything

In the Meme Time

Yet again the Left gives itself another opportunity to be ridiculed. And this is one of the dumbest memes I’ve seen in a while. And like most Leftist memes. There is always that hint of truth to make you question your believes and to fool the mass of useful idiot.

First up is the Truth. Alchemy is not taught alongside of chemistry. Well no shit. This gives the meme that initial credibility to make the rest of it sound correct but it doesn’t when you actually read it with a bit of knowledge and logical thought.

Alchemy isn’t taught alongside of chemistry because alchemy is the precursor to chemistry and other areas of modern science. We generally don’t teach the precursors to something that has a modern version. And certainly not alongside it’s modern version.

Astrology isn’t taught alongside of physics. Well of course not. Astrology has very little to do with physics as a whole. Maybe alongside of astrophysics would be acceptable when there is talk of planetary motion. But nothing else within astrology is related to physics at all. Unless you count metaphysics. It a bad comparison.

But unlike alchemy, astrology itself is still taught in the schools of metaphysics. To make the point more sound it would have been better to state that astrology is not taught alongside of astronomy. That would be accurate but the Left doesn’t like doing things that are logical, accurate, or true.

Also, unlike alchemy, astrology is still used today by millions of people. From the lowest poor and enslaved to the highest leaders of many nations and the wealthiest of people. And they use astrology to make decisions that impact not only themselves but others as well.

Most of our modern sciences had their roots in the 18th or 19th centuries. That’s the 1700s or 1800s for those not paying attention. A good number of these early scientists were priests or monks. Exploring the natural world and the heavens to glorify God and His creation.

So the atheist who states that creationism shouldn’t be taught alongside of biology is half right. Creationism is part of every scientific area of study. It is an integrated and inseparable part of biology and every other science.

I’m sure the author quoted in the meme, if they are indeed even a real person, truly meant to beat down on Creationism vs Evolution. Where Evolution is just a theory. It is not fact or even proven at this point. But Creationism is absolute.

God created the heavens and the earth. God created the vegetation that grows upon it. God created the fish of the seas, the birds of the air, and the beasts of fields and wildlife. And God created man in His own image.

In the Meme Time

Back again with another Leftist meme to ridicule and show off it’s falsehoods. Like most Leftist memes this one too has a hint of truth in it to fool those who can be fooled.

This little meme pops up every June sooner or later. An attempt to put a false idea in your head from the LGBTQ+ movements about their actions and sin.

Let’s look at it:

First of all the imagery is deliberate of course. A US flag to invoke feelings for America. And following the meme would then be patriotic. A pig dressed in a flag is still a pig. A lie with a flag background is still a lie.

The opening statement is true. Every human being that has ever existed, except for Christ Jesus, was born a sinner. The truth ends there however. As the meme goes on to state that the persons sin is mentioned in the Bible 25 times. But this is not true.

No where. And I mean in no place at all. Is left-handedness ever called a sin. In fact, no genetic trait is ever called a sin in Holy Scripture. All sins are actions a person takes that separates them from our Holy Creator. And the Bible does mention quite a few of them.

Doing something against the commands of God. Either deliberately or even in ignorance. Those are sins. Left-handedness is not a sin.

Yes indeed Left-handedness is mentioned in the Bible in a number of places. Yes, society has been cruel to it’s lefties for centuries before adapting change and understanding about those who are left-handed.

So again at the end. The meme is truthful again about society changing for the better when it comes to left-handed people.

The meme wants us to associate sin with left-handedness which society now accepts over all. And then associate other sins with things that society now accepts somewhat. This is due to the false narrative that like a left-handed person, they were born this way.

And lastly, another falsehood, the supposed author of the statement is an Educator. He is obviously not educated in Scripture.

Discord vs IRC

I’ve written about a few of these topics in the past and I’m sure they will be revisited again in the future. In our modern world connected as we are through the technology of the internet. There is still a need for text only based real time chatting between 2 or more people.

Text only based chatting has many advantages over both voice or video methods of communication. Far less bandwidth is needed is the biggest advantage. It can work on even the worst internet connections and the slowest of PCs.

In the days of Dial-up internet, were AOL was the king of providers, they had a multitude of chatrooms for many topics and communities across their membership. And outside of AOL and accessible to it, and all other providers were the many servers and networks of Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

During the height of IRC’s popularity it had over a million users signed in across the multitude of networks and servers. Today, with the rise of Social Media, this number has been reduced to a quarter of what it once was.

A vast majority of IRC users are now found on the Discord service. It has a number of similarities to IRC that allows users to feel “at home” there. However there are a lot of differences too between the 2 platforms.

Here are some of the similarities and differences:

Discord has a native “pretty” interface. Granted IRC does not but it’s totally depends on which IRC client one uses to access IRC.

Discard has audio and visual communications options. IRC does not have these functions at all. They are left to other services to provide them.

Discord has Avatars and Profiles. Although IRC at its base level does not. There are IRC clients that provide similar functions.

Both services have bots running on them in multiple channels performing a multitude of various tasks.

Discord requires registration in order to use it. IRC does not require registration, but many networks and servers have registration available and it’s recommended.

Discord has the ability to create channel threads. Topics that filter out of the main channel discussion into a sub-channel without leaving the channel. IRC does not have this unique ability. In IRC one would have to chat privately or form a separate channel with the smaller number of users.

Both services off the ability to chat privately between users.

IRC is independent. There are networks and stand alone servers. Each one is unique. Discord “servers” are all part of Discord and ran on the same equipment as all others.

This one fact can lead to a single point of failure for Discord. If the Discord service goes down. All of the Discord “servers” are done. Not true at all with IRC since each server and network are independent of one another.

And with the independence, IRC is individually owned. Where as Discord is corporately owned and could change any aspect of its service with a board member vote. Including making the entire service a paid service.

On Discord you can @mention another user of the “server” you are connected to and they would be notified of the mention. IRC doesn’t have this as a built-in function. However, like other functions that are built-in to Discord, many IRC clients have similar functions.

On Discord, if you join a “server”, you are automatically in all the channels save for ones that are role restricted which can cause unwanted notifications of chats. One IRC when you connect to a server you only join the channels you want to join or none at all.

With IRC, anyone can create a new channel just by joining it. And that person gets admin rights in that channel automatically. If there is registration available and the user desires they can register the channel and make it permanent. But on Discord, only Admins can create new channels. It’s the same role given to create, destroy, or modify any channel so it’s not given out to everyone.

Discord has a history feature. Once you join a “server” and are in the channels you can infinitely scroll up to see what was previously said in that channel by anyone. On IRC, there is a +H mode that can be set on some servers or networks that allow a similar functionality but it’s usually not infinite.

Discord admins have the ability to delete chats in a channel. IRC doesn’t have this ability. Once the chat is there it’s there. But new users generally wont see it because of the lack of history available.

Bots are on both services as previously mentioned. And bots are very handy to have to provide functions and features that aren’t part of the system. With Discord, you have to have Dev permissions to create a bot. And that bot cannot run on a regular member’s account. Doing so would get the bot and user banned from Discord. On IRC however, there are a variety of scripting options available. Some are based on the client program use to connect to IRC and others are dependent on the bot being used. And you can run scripts from your own client as well.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to comparing IRC and Discord. Just looking at this list the favor leans towards IRC over Discord despite some of its unique features. Many Discord features can be duplicated or simulated in IRC with a bit of scripting or simple options enabled on one’s client program.

I will always be an IRC enthusiast. After all I have ran my own IRC network/server for 25 years. And in this day and age of cancel culture, the freedom of an IRC server is just what is needed.

I am sad to say that I have lost a few IRC channels to Discord. And looking at those Discord “servers” I could have over a 1000 users on my IRC network if they stayed or came back.

But if you are looking for a place to have an online real-time text based chat. I’m happy to help you get setup on IRC. You can connect via a browser at https://web.communiti.chat or point you favorite IRC client program to irc.commuinit.chat and get setup to go.

Trump Indictment

The indictment of President Trump is nothing more than a mug shot photo op for the Left.

A grand jury is not a trial. It is a one-sided, rigged from the start, secret and closed-door, pep rally for the prosecution. Often politically motivated and even used as a political stepping stone by the attorney general or other prosecutor that calls one.

This grand jury and indictment is just that. A political show. The attorney general ran on the campaign promise to have a grand jury indict President Trump. This will be his feather in his cap if the idiot survives the fallout.

The charge itself is bogus. It isn’t a federal crime. In fact, it isn’t even a local crime any more. It has long lost due to the statute of limitations on this misdemeanor charge.

There will be fallout politically due to this 1st in the nation incident. The Left will use it against the 2024 Trump Campaign. And the Trump Campaign will use it in their favor as well. But it will also lead to more distrust in our government and justice system.

More Convention of States Nonsense

On Tuesday, March 28th, there will be a Convention of States rally at the Iowa Capitol. I encourage everyone who is able to come out and oppose this dangerous and foolish nonsense.

I am saddened to hear that Bob Vander Plaats of The Family Leader will be speaking in favor of this foolishness. But it doesn’t surprise me really.

Bob Vander Plaats had a unique opportunity as a Believer to witness to Donald Trump who was a guest of The Family Leader before his 2016 Presidential bid and eventual nomination. But The Family Leader under Bob’s leadership tossed that opportunity aside and dived head first into to the Cruz campaign. Even being a co-chair of it and allowing the campaign to operate out of The Family Leader’s offices.

The dangers of having a Convention of States are well known. It is far too important to allow this wicked and foolish event to take place. Now those that support it will try to sale you on assurances that cannot be guaranteed. Namely that how there will be a stated agenda and rules that prevent any form of action contrary to what is being sold as a reason for holding the Convention of States.

Do NOT let this fool you. At any political meeting. There is always the opportunity to through out the rules at the very beginning or even suspend the rules during the course of the convention. I have been at conventions where this has happened. And I assure you it will happen at a Convention of States.

There are people who wish to destroy the United States of America. Who wish to end the Republic and create a socialist state. America wont fall because of an outside military force. But it will fall from within if the Constitution can be destroyed and replaced but something else.

Our Founding Fathers meet in convention with the agenda of amending the Articles of Confederation that governed the young American nation. But instead they changed those rules and agenda and tossed out the entire Articles and created the Constitution we currently possess.

There are other means to getting what the Convention of States movement claims they want to accomplish and those means should be used.

I do not trust any living person to make amendments to our Constitution. Let alone to write a new one. Not even myself.

And yet here is a Believer, who has been fooled into this trap set by those who will destroy everything the Constitution protects once the Convention of States is called.

Bob Vander Plaats would have never made these two big mistakes had he had wise council in them. Unfortunately the wisest of those, his former assistant in all but name, resigned from the organization 2 years prior to the Cruz debacle. She would have told Bob straight out, in no uncertain terms, not to support Cruz and toss Trump under the bus like he did.

She would have also been against this Convention of States foolishness and called out the wickedness of what it is as well.

I know this for 100% fact. This is not a speculation as Bob’s former assistant was my late wife Kristen.

He Gets Us More than You Know

During the football season there were a number of commercials on TV about Jesus and how He gets us. Something just didn’t sit right with me in my spirit watching these ads.

I have gone to the website (which I’m not going to link) and watched the organization’s other videos. And with each one I get the same feelings over and over again.

The Jesus presented in these videos is a “good guy”. He has a lot of “good intentions”. And following the worldview of this Jesus as presented would make the world a better place.

But this is not the Jesus of the Bible. This is not the Saviour of all mankind. This Jesus is not the Christ. And following this Jesus will not save your soul from damnation. It will make you feel good in this life only.

Many who follow this false Jesus will be the ones who will hear the prophecy of Matthew 7: 21-23. Our Lord warned us that false Christs would come in Matthew 24:23-25.

I am sad to say that even some Believers are happy about these videos being aired during the football season. Stating that “Hey it gets the name of Jesus out there.” Yes it does. But if it’s not the Son of God Jesus. It doesn’t do you or anyone any good to follow this false Jesus.

Instead we should do as commanded in Scripture. Flee from this evil and wickedness.

Loyalty Oath

The RNC is saying that all candidates for the 2024 Presidential election must sign a loyalty pledge to support the eventual nominee or they wont be allowed to debate. This is mainly aimed at President Donald Trump who rejected such a pledge back in 2016 and is so far rejecting such a pledge now.

However, Speaker Ryan has come out to state he would not attend the national convention if Trump was the nominee. I’m sure others would also make such statements as well.

If you want to go down this route with loyalty oaths. Make the entire RNC delegation pledge to support the nominee. Even if it is Trump and see how many want to sign it.

If that produces a lot of push back. Drop the idea. Loyalty pledges aren’t for the Republic. Democracies or all totalitarian Leftist states certainly. But they have no place on the right.

I am not for any one specific Republican candidate right now. I know of at least 3 people running for the nomination and there will be more. But right now I can’t say who I will support.

The Unimproved Twitter

Twitter. Even when the Left owned it, it was my favorite Social Media platform. I think because it wasn’t full of ads (originally), games, and other nonsense that is found is most other Social Media platforms.

Twitter was, and still is, a micro-blogging site. And I like blogs. They are plain and simple and good to use to express your views and opinions. You are reading one of my blogs right now.

Since Elon Musk has become the owner of Twitter. I’ve come back to it more. Only to find some rather annoying changes and a few pleasant surprises as well.

I wanted to add a Twitter feed to a website. The usual procedure is to create an app or possibly just give an app permission to access the specific Twitter feed. And the app I was using believed the same thing. This ended up being a terrible dark rabbit hole.

You needed to get a Dev account now just to create a simple Twitter bot to read a feed and post it to another website. And the approval isn’t automatic. Were in the past you could easily just be auto approved to create any bot on the platform. It was very frustrating to say the least.

And of course it turned out to not be necessary. A pleasant surprise after the fact and some digging around. The process is fairly simple now to have a Twitter feed post someplace else. But apparently no one has been informed of this change.

I do have multiple Twitter accounts. I think I may have one even for this blog. I liked using TweetDeck. Because I could see multiple accounts at once and post to all or any specific combination when making new posts to Twitter. But it’s been changed.

The old TweetDeck is now “classic” TweetDeck. And although it is currently accessible still. It may not stay that way. I just don’t like the new version of the application. It’s not very friendly. I’ve never understood why people like to fix things that aren’t broken.

The management and censorship of Twitter was broken. The platform itself was not. Leave it alone Elon and just fix what was broken.

OGL 1.1

The great revival of Dungeons & Dragons started in 2000. The year the 3rd Edition was born and with it, the OGL (Open Gaming License).

This created an explosion of interest in the game and in table top role-playing in general. And with a multitude of small press game designers. All getting a piece of the pie.

Then WoTC (Wizards of the Coast) was sold to Hasbro. The mega game company that has bought out many others over the years.

Twenty years into the OGL era and Habro wants to get a bigger piece of the pie and all rights to any Dungeons & Dragons published material.

From a business red line stand point, this makes sense. Hasbro isn’t getting revenue from other publishers who create games and material based on D&D and use the D&D brand.

So, they are revoking the current OGL license and creating a multi-teired license in it’s place. This new OGL is not an open gaming license however. And severaly restricts publishers and the creative spirit.

But what Hasbro doesn’t understand is that it was the OGL that caused the explosion in the market in the first place. Without it, WoTC would have remained a small press company that owned the D&D brand.

The popularity of the game would still be limited to the nerds and geeks that have always played it and their kids. And the explosion of publishers never would have happened.

And Habro itself wouldn’t have been interested in acquiring WoTC or the D&D brand because it would still be small potatoes. High risk, little reward.

So here we are. With the current OGL, D&D is a cash cow for anyone that wants to get into publishing something for it or based on it. Including Hasbro if they had a group dedicated to producing new content for the game.

With the leak of the OGL 1.1, this will change. The small press well will dry up. It’s not worth the cost of a small press who is turning out PDFs in their basement. No way to fight a legal battle with Hasbro in the courts either.

Players and publishers alike have already talked online about abandoning D&D if this new OGL takes shape and some are going to do it anyway now.

Even if Hasbro changes course and keeps the original OGL and doesn’t go after the cash and rights in all things produced. The trust is gone.

And if Hasbro follows through with this change. Then like TSR under Lorraine Williams, the D&D brand will die.