my careless contagion

Social Distortion's album White Light, White Heat, White Trash was released in 1996. I wrote previously about a track (I was wrong), which I recall seeing on MTV's 120 Minutes in probably late 1996 when I was home from college some weekend. I didn't know I'd later see the band play many times or that they would become a major influence in my life.  Crown of Thorns was released 25 years ago on the same album and remains relevant. Though it didn't mean anything to me for years, today it does. It's clear the singer/songwriter, Mike Ness, went through "the program," meaning some sort of mind-control protocols. The marks are all over his music, his life, and his body. (Once you know what to look for, you spot it right away.) Mass media, in turn, uses these programmed individuals to program the rest of us. I was thinking about a song on the radio the other day (Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar, who I also saw perform) and how it was blatant programming, ...

  Only Entertainment was included on Bad Religion's album Generator (released in 1992 but recorded in 1991) . The song takes a considerable, nasty swipe at the news media, which even left-leaning Bad Religion considered a complete farce at the time. Anytime I hear someone getting worked up about something political or whatever is big in the news right now (NFL players and the National Anthem, whatever Trump said, climate change blather, someone's emails, etc.), I'm reminded of this inscrutable fact: it is only entertainment .  While the song ends by taking a swing at the FCC, its ferocity is mainly directed at the mainstream news media. I maintain that anyone who gets their information from mainstream sources (all the alphabet soups, including PBS) is not wise. If you regard it as simple entertainment, you will do well. It is designed to draw you into the fray of left versus right, them versus us, blue versus red, etc. It is divisive. It peddles misinformation, disinform...

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." (Proverbs 18:10) The above proverb relates to a recent post about the names of God. The very name of God is a strong tower or defense. According to Philippians 2:9-11 ( Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father), there is nothing higher than the name of Jesus Christ (nor more powerful!). And, as Christians are supposed to point the way to Jesus Christ, Jesus points the way to the Father. In Him is found everything we need or want. In these present times, which are more than a little uncertain, some things remain certain. Those things are found in my Bible, from which I daily seek comfort. Lately, I've been spen...