Shaken Not Stirred

For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. – Haggai 2:6-7

Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. – Hebrews 12:27-28

Clothes don’t mean that much to me.
Why don’t you go and ask the Snake?
What really turns me on, is the shake.
-- Neal McCoy

Henry Paulson, former Secretary of the Treasury, has written a book called On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System. In interviews promoting his book, Mr. Paulson tells us that he could envision the destruction of the entire American way of life if Wall Street investment banks collapsed under the weight of their derivatives speculation. Mr. Paulson relates that this prospect caused him great fear. He tells how, at one point, he stepped out into the hall and called his wife to ask her to pray for him. It is worth noting that Secretary Paulson is a member of the Church of Christ Scientist.

Now I think that Mr. Paulson, along with George Bush and Congress, were wrong in bailing out the system, but I will admit I’m no expert and I’m not sure how dire the consequences would have been. Would Main Street have felt the tremors of Wall Street giants leaping from ledges? We would have – though most of us believe that we are plunging or about to plunge over an equally high and abrupt precipice of massive debt and out-of-control government spending. Simple folks without prestigious rank and titles suspect that all Secretary Paulson and the government accomplished was to create a new bubble to replace housing – a government-spending bubble which will be far more temporary and far more disastrous when it bursts than anything we have experienced so far. During one of Henry Paulson’s interviews he said that he did not want to be the Treasury Secretary who presided over the collapse of the system. I can’t say that I blame him for that. Most of us can feel some sympathy for his position while being less than pleased with his actions and the ultimate result. Perhaps history will be kind to him and allow his name and his contribution to be forgotten when the shaking finally comes.

The reason I mention all of this is that it is makes easy to see that fear is the primary motivating factor of the world system. The old nature tends to operate out of fear when it is not building on the sandy soil of hubris. Since the Garden we try to find those things that make us feel good, and, having acquired them, we fear their loss. It is the inclination of fallen man to deify self by trying to control certain aspects of life. It never works but failure doesn’t stop us from trying. If we were more objective about our foibles we could find them amusing, even endearing – much the way we feel when watching small children have tea parties or care for their dolls.

We build and buttress, fence and defend. We lose sleep worrying. We scheme and sweat. There is no end to our clever endeavors and the intricate intrigues pursued in our effort to insulate the very vulnerable self from the raw reality of existence. Oddly enough the one thing that is permanent, the truly eternal, is the One that we avoid. Our bare soul with nothing between it and God is the only unshakeable foundation.

There is no need to fear. When the shaking comes it will only remove the dross, those things that are of no value or consequence. When it is all over we will know what is pure and good and true for only those things will be left. All the wood, hay, and stubble will be shaken loose and consumed by that fire – not a fire of destruction and loss but of restoration and resurrection.

Christmas Shopping Report and Catalogs

I went Christmas shopping Saturday, so I am now officially in the spirit.

It was clear from our excursion to the Holy City that America is held hostage to the worst economy since the Great Depression. One exit from the freeway was completely blocked with traffic – no accident, just lots and lots of cars – probably lined up for baloney sandwiches at the Salvation Army several miles away. People were actually eating at Wendy’s and Taco Bell. There were also quite a few cars at the Starbuck’s next to Wendy’s. I’m sure they were probably homeless families who had their houses repossessed by Dick Cheney and are reduced to living in their vehicles in the parking lots of overpriced coffee shops.

We had trouble getting into the Target parking lot. It took about ten minutes to get across the lot to the store entrance where I let my wife out and immediately lost sight of her in the crowd. Ten minutes later I found a parking spot in the overflow area – as far from the door as you can get and still be on the same block. I couldn’t see any Social Services employees handing out day-old bread, so I’m not sure why the crowd was so large. Once in the store I tried to get to the digital cameras but the crowd in the electronics section was so massive that I gave up. People must be buying cameras to take their passport photos so they can immigrate to Venezuela.

The mall was even worse. We spent fifteen minutes getting to the light in the left turn lane to get to the mall parking lot. There were no parking spots. There were lines of cars waiting for departing shoppers to back out. I wonder if the food court was giving out free meals. Another odd thing I noticed while walking around the mall is that no one looked like those Ethiopian people – though some did have distended bellies – most actually looked – well, well-fed. I guess the “new starvation” has a different look than the old starvation.

Anyway, that’s enough of that. What I really wanted to say was that, since I am in the Christmas spirit, I thought I’d give my reviews of some stuff I’ve run across.

A couple of weeks ago Lindsay’s Technical Books popped up on Cool Tools. If you follow the link, you will be able to order the catalog of “Exceptional technical books for experimenters, inventors, tinkerers, mad scientists, and ‘Thomas Edison-types’”. I am ordering three books for Christmas: Blacksmith Shop & Iron Forge, Teach Yourself Electronics (going out as a gift to a family member), and Peak Oil Survival. Frankly these are not Lindsay’s most interesting titles.

Check out: Home Cheese Making, Secrets of Building a Plastic Injection Molding Machine, How to Build and Fly a Glider, I Just Love to Fart Cookbook, A Practical Treatise on the Raw Materials and the Distillation and Rectification of Alcohol, and Deep Hole Drilling to name but a few. By the way, in case you are wondering, the last title is next to a related book, Making Rifle Barrels.

You can get a free catalog and then order all kinds of cool books about building steam engines and making tools to make tools. By all means ask Lindsay’s for their catalog if you are interested in buying a book or two.

They have some books that are dangerous for kids. If you have kids or grandkids, buy some of those dangerous books and hand them out to the younger generation. With ten days to go, it’s mostly too late for getting them anything by Christmas but there are always birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, baptisms, bar mitzvahs, weddings, MLK Day – which coincides with Robert E. Lee’s birthday in 2009, etc.

The other catalog that showed up in the Cool Tools shuffle was Cabela’s. They do have some things that you are unlikely to find just anywhere. I think they are a little pricey – not unlike their chief competitor, Bass Pro. Visiting a Cabela’s retail store – I’ve been to the one in Austin – is much like visiting my own local Bass Pro. They are big. I think I bought a little waterproof bag that has a zipper closure and a clip lanyard. It is good for sticking stuff in when canoeing. I also carry my wallet in it at amusement parks for the rides where you get wet.

I do buy stuff at Bass Pro, occasionally. I bought a canoe there. I have bought reloading supplies from them, but they don’t have much anymore. These days I only show up for sales or to buy bulk ammunition. Bass Pro is one of the few local retailer locations carrying Number 2’s – that is, Remington Nitro Express shotgun shells with the all-important #2 shot. It’s good stuff.

But the stores I like are the little gun shops where there are lots of used guns and guys in boots that look like they’ve been out in the “br’ers”. Something just bugs me about standing in line to buy shooting supplies behind a dude in Calvin Klein’s with tassels on his loafers. In the little stores you are more likely to get an honest answer than a sales pitch.

There is one mailorder company where that’s also true: Midway USA. Larry Potterfield is the company’s founder and president. They are located near Columbia, Missouri. Midway is strictly mailorder – their catalogs are great, or you can order off the website. If you’re an occasional customer like I am, it is nice to talk to knowledgeable people when you call in your order. They know where I live and how much shipping will be. They can answer questions, and they will ask if I want to “round up” and donate to the NRA, which I always do. I have never met Mr. Potterfield but I understand you can see him on one of the “critter-killing channels”. He and his family are hunters and shooters. If Midway has it in their catalog, it will probably work like it’s supposed to.