Something so simple, yet totally perplexing.

I am amazed.

I have literally spent days upon days now trying to find a book.

Just one simple book.

The Bible.

Here's the background. I have a ton of Bibles around here. I think I counted 14 of them around here. That does not include children's Bibles or New Testaments. You would think that I should have no problems at all with a Bible to read. I literally have enough for two in every room in my house if you don't include the kitchen. So there is no good reason for me to need another one.

Well, in reality I don't. I have a perfectly adequate New International Version my parents gave me in 1991. Nothing in the world wrong with it. I read it daily, and take it to church every week.

The "problem" is that I "need" a study Bible to use every day. And I want the most accurate translation available. There's the problem. Who defines accurate. Right out of the box I looked at the English Standard Version. The hottest new version of a 2000 year old book on the market.

WOW! Let's all run out and buy one! I can't wait!

Great idea, unless you read the interwebs. Of course, you shouldn't read the interwebs without consulting me first my children. Like Rush Limbaugh, I'll do your thinking for you.

There are so many commentaries on the various translations that it will make your head swim.

So, have I chosen my next Bible? Nope. But I have a plan.

I'm going to buy something with a pretty color, with those fancy thumb tab thingys, not too expensive, in whatever version my preacher suggests. As soon as he responds to my e-mail question.

Now that's some real objective research!

So, until my next post; nobody move. I'll be right back.

Who Is John Galt?

"So you think that money is the
root of all evil? Have you ever
asked what is the root of money?
Money is a tool of exchange, which
can't exist unless there are goods
produced and men able to produce
them. Money is the material shape
of the principle that men who wish
to deal with one another must deal
by trade and give value for value.
Money is not the tool of the moochers,
who claim your product by tears,
or of the looters, who take it from
you by force. Money is made possible
only by the men who produce. Is this
what you consider evil?"

- Francisco d'Anconia

I read A small book last month. Okay, it was a long book. Real long. It took me over a week to read it, and I read fast. It was Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

What sparked me to read this was a bumper sticker. It simply read "Who Is John Galt?" I didn't know, so I looked on the web to find out. My research led me to the book.

Now let me be clear; I do not fully agree with all of Ms. Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. I am intrigued by it and I feel that there is much truth in it, but I do not fully drink that Kool-aid.

I will say that "Atlas Shrugged" is perhaps the best book I have read. Not only is it a great philosophy, but it is great fiction. A page turner that makes "The DaVinci Code" jealous. To summarize the plot, it is the story of how one man destroys the economy of the United States because the government is taking control of free enterprise and capitalism. The book was intended to be a cry against Communism, which it plainly is, but it is also a great foreshadowing of the Socialist-Communist government Comrade Obama-ski is forcing us into now.

I recomend that you read the book. I guarantee it will change your perspective of the world.

"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
- John Galt