We wonder why this country is in the deep hole it is in now. (original article)

Pastor Ron Baity was asked to lead prayer for the North Carolina state legislature. When he used the word Jesus in his prayer he was let go on the basis that the name would offend some people.

As one commenter pointed out: John 15

18“If the world hates you, you should realize that it hated me before you. 19If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But because you do not belong to the world and I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

I am going to jump aboard the conspiracy wagon here after piecing together things I have been observing in the news over the last few years.

Unemployment is higher today.  That wasn’t totally unexpected given that the census temps are being laid off.

The population is angry.  There are too many links that show this to post here.  Just open any news site or channel and you’ll soon enough find it on either side of the political spectrum.

This administration follows a policy of never letting a crisis go to waste to advance its agenda.  The latest example of that is the President’s speech addressing the gulf oil leak.  He started off pushing his energy policy agenda.

 From the beginning of this administration’s term, every bad thing has been blamed on the previous administration.  I suggest that isn’t just rhetoric.  Not that I think the previous administration did no wrong, but this idea that “it’s all Bush’s fault” has been pushed so hard it seems like it is a case of attempting to make a lie true by repeating it enough. I think it continues to be pushed hard to foment more anger in those who were inclined in to be anti-Bush; and anti-GOP even more than already existed.

This last week, the administration declined to allow for an extension of unemployment benefits for millions.  This may get “fixed” but not until after the fourth of July holiday.

There is a further written plan for taking down the U.S. system of governance so that it may be replaced by something else.  It is called the Cloward-Piven Strategy.  Summarized by David Horowitz it is as such:

The “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

So we now have millions of people, all angry and that anger being rhetorically directed at the previous administration.  This sets up a distraction for those who don’t agree with the current administration and a base of people who do agree who can be manipulated to further the administration’s agenda.

The loss of jobs is on purpose.  Not approving an extension of benefits (though we really don’t have the money it seems anyway) is not an accident.  It is all in order to further put pressure on the system so that it will collapse clearing the way for the enlightened socialist agenda that has never worked anywhere else in the world either.

I’ve added a new image to the gallery.  For some reason Gallery 2 was giving me fits trying to create the thumbnails.

I say, “sort of” because the picture isn’t a new render for me, it was made a long time ago.  Apparently in 2008.  My local file on my hard drive says it was created in 2011, but that’s obviously not possible.

Enjoy.

PREFACE

 I am going to begin with an important admonition.  Be like the Bereans spoken of in Acts 17:11.  Look up these things I say for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

 

Introduction

The book of Leviticus contains a list of blessings that God promises to bestow upon Israel if they follow His commands.  It also contains a list of consequences if they do not follow His commands.  Israel was set aside by God to serve as an example through which the rest of the world can know Him. As such, with few exceptions, what applies to Israel, also applies to every other nation in the world.

The United States began with a Christian background.  Its laws formed on a Christian basis. While the constitution does keep religion and state governance separate, the country did follow Christian ideals for a time.  Even so, the country is still subject to God’s desires.  The rules that apply to Israel and thus the blessings and consequences, apply to the United States as well; with the exception of those that apply to being a chosen nation.

 

The Book of Leviticus – The Creation of the Jewish Nation

Leviticus is the third book of Moses.  It contains a list of rules and regulations the Israelites were to follow concern a great number of things; everything from what to do about skin infections to how to perform the various sacrifices and how to treat the land.  One section specifically lists out what God will do to both bless Israel if they keep His covenant and what He will do to curse Israel if they do not follow His commands.

Leviticus is one of those books that is difficult to read and understand.  It is, nonetheless, important.  Israel is important to the God’s plan and the rules governing Israel are important for us to understand since Israel is to be an example He uses to show the rest of the world, the gentile world, His nature and His grace.

We can find the promise of the creation of the Jewish nation through the covenant made with Abraham (formerly Abram). Chapter 12, verses 2-3 state,

2I’ll make a great nation of your descendants, I’ll bless you, and I’ll make your reputation great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I’ll bless those who bless you, but I’ll curse the one who curses you, and through you all the people of the earth will be blessed.” (ISV)

It is re-affirmed and refined through Jacob, who was renamed Israel.  Abraham was to be the father of many nations, Jacob (Israel) is to be the progenitor of a nation.  That is the nation of Israel being a subset of the nations that were promised to come from Abraham’s descents.  Israel, the nation, is set aside to be God’s holy people.  This is expressed in numerous places throughout the Bible.  One reference is in Deuteronomy 7 beginning at verse 6. 

Israel was not chosen because the people were special in any way.  They weren’t exceptionally godly or more numerous than the rest of the people’s of the world.  In fact, the Bible reflects that God says precisely this same thing.   That can be found in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, where it is written,

7“It was not because you were more numerous than other people of the earth that the Lord committed himself to you and chose you. In fact, you were the least numerous of all the peoples. 8But the Lord loved you and kept his oath that he made to your ancestors. The Lord brought you out with great power from slavery, from the control of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

 

The Biblical Foundation of the United States

Now we come to the formative years of the United States.  The founding fathers were well known to have a religious background[1] [2]  [3]and more importantly a belief in the deity of God.  In fact, the very constitution of the United States declares its base freedoms are granted from God (The Declaration of Independence).

Richard B. Morris lists seven founding fathers in his book “Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries”.  He lists them as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.  While many arguments exist attempting to rewrite history stating that the founding fathers were completely without religion, it is evident from their writings that this was not the case.

Benjamin Franklin’s states in his autobiography, “I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and governed it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue reward, either here or hereafter.”

George Washington, in his inaugural speech acknowledged the sovereignty of God over all of creation and the nations of the earth.

“…it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States …”[4]

 Incidentally, it is said that George Washington took the oath of office with his hand on a Bible open to Deuteronomy 28.  I leave it as an exercise to the reader to look that up and conclude why it is so apropos.

An entry in John Adams’ diary reads, “Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God…What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”[5]

At the Jefferson memorial, Panel three reads:

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish a law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state and on a general plan.”

In “Memorial and Remonstrance”, James Madison writes:

“…It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator.  It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him.  This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.  Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Govenour (sic) of the Universe: …”[6]

Alexander Hamilton said after the 1787 Constitutional Convention,

“For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.”

It is established, then, that while the founders of this country wisely opted to keep a separation of the governance of religion and the governance of the country, they did have a biblical background, belief and basis upon which they wrote the constitution of these United States.  So for a time, we enjoyed a certain prosperity similar to the blessings that are outlined in Leviticus 26.

  

A Brief History of Early Israel

A reading of the early history of Israel shows that they, too enjoyed a certain amount of prosperity exactly as promised.  Israel was given a specific covenant and was chosen to be set apart by God as an example for the rest of the nations of the world.   That includes the United States, even though it did not exist at the time of the creation of the nation of Israel.  While we are not subject to The Law of Moses[7], we do have an obligation to follow His statutes.

The Lord is consistent and just.  So what happens to Israel must therefore happen to the rest of the world’s nations with exception of specific promises given to Israel due to their status of being set apart.  So, as we look at the history of the United States, we see that in many respects it is similar to that of Israel and consistent with the list of blessings laid out at the beginning of Leviticus 26.

3“If you live by my statutes, obey my commands, and observe them, 4then I’ll send your rain in its season so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will yield their fruit. 5Threshing will extend to the time of vintage and the vintage will extend to the time of sowing so that you’ll eat your bread to your satisfaction and live securely in your land.”

6“I’ll give peace in the land so that you’ll lie down without fear. I’ll remove wild beasts from the land, not even war will come to your land. 7Instead you’ll pursue your enemies and they’ll die by the sword before you. 8Five of you will chase a hundred, a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

9“I’ll look after you, ensuring that you’ll be fruitful. I’ll increase your number and keep my covenant with you. 10When you have consumed what was stored of the old, then you’ll take out the old and replace it with what’s new.

Indeed, the United States was once considered to be the bread basket to the world.  No wars had come to the shores of this country.  We enjoyed unprecedented success through the resources of the land.  The country did become fruitful and expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.  We did chase away the enemies who attacked us.  There were few exceptions, such as the war of 1812 and the civil war and the dust bowl of the 1930s; just as Israel was not kept from war with its neighbors.  Throughout the history defined from Joshua through Chronicles, Israel alternately fell away from God and returned to Him.  As such, they alternately fell to their neighbors and repelled them.

However, Israel continued to turn further and further from God’s precepts and just as He promised prosperity for following His commands; He also explicitly promises a cascading set of consequences for not following them. 

  

America’s Decline from God

It is no secret that we, as a nation, have been turning further away from God’s precepts.  This began in earnest by outlawing prayer in school in the 1962-1963 court cases of Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Murray v. Curlett (1963).  Further, the sexual revolution of the 1960s along with the increase in drug use that began during that time shows we have fallen even further from God and are ever increasingly relying on our own concepts of what is right and wrong.  The American Religious Identification Survey has indicated a decline in adults who identify themselves as Christians since 1990.  It also shows the numbers who profess no religious identification at all has doubled from 1990 to 2001.  Arrogantly we have decided that God has no place in our schools, in our movies, indeed, even in our society in general and for an increasing number, our very lives.  Separation of Church and State has become Absence of Church from the State.  There are even efforts to remove the phrase “In God We Trust” our money.  Though I doubt God has much use for our money, it shows how far we have come in attempting to remove Him from our lives.

  

God’s Promised Consequences for National Apostasy – Examples of How these Consequences are Playing out for the United States

Just as there is a list of blessings promised to The Nation who follows His commands, and I propose subsequently to any nation, there is also a list of cascading consequences.  Since God is consistent and Israel is set as an example, it is my belief that the United States, too, is subject to these cascading consequences.  The only difference being that God did not give us a promise to be His people and so we do not get the promise of returning to a land set aside for us.  The consequences are also in Leviticus 26 and are listed as such:

First,

“I’ll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You’ll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant.

“I’ll set my face against you so that you’ll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you’ll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.

One cannot argue that this is already happening to us.  I find it interesting that tuberculosis is specifically listed, though this is from the ISV (International Standard Version).  The King James version reads:

“…I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart:…”

The burning ague is King James language for disease.  It describes a fever.

In any case, it is clear the terror and disease are promised as the first stage of consequences.

I mentioned that it was interesting that tuberculosis was chosen by the ISV translation team.  It turns out that there was a time not long ago that it was believed by medical experts that tuberculosis cases would actually be significantly reduced by the year 2000 and the disease itself was to be eliminated shortly after that[8].  However, it turns out that beginning in the 1980s cases of Tuberculosis have actually increased.  So, too, cases of typhoid fever as also shown in “A tale of Two Trends: Tuberculosis and Typhoid Fever”.  In 1983, the AIDS epidemic began to show.  While it actually started before 1983, it was May of 1983 when the name was given to the new virus.

There is another part of this first consequence, that of being given to terror.  We live in the age of terror.  While terrorism has existed since the beginning of civilization, one is hard pressed to argue that this country lives in a constant state of terror and crisis.  We can no longer board an airplane with a bottle of water.  The September 11, 2001 collapsing of the Twin Towers is well remembered, but the age of terror began even before that.  In fact it wasn’t the first time an attempt was made to bring those buildings down.  On February 26, 1993, there was an attempt to bomb the world trade center from the parking garage.  On April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building was destroyed by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.  The shoe bomber was apprehended on an attempt to bring down an airplane for the purposes of terror on December 22, 2001.  In 2006, a plot to explode multiple trans-atlantic airliners was thwarted which is the reason we can’t bring liquids on airplanes anymore.  The most recent act of terror at the time of this writing occurred on February 18, 2010 when Joseph Stack crashed his small plane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas.  These are the reported incidents.  One only has to watch the news to see that even if some terror group from the mountains of Pakistan even hints it will do something, we, as a nation, run in fear.  Or stated another way, “…keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.”

The second consequence listed is:

I’ll break your mighty pride.  I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won’t yield its produce and the trees of the land won’t yield its fruit.

For the last decade there have been record droughts all across the United States.  Pop culture will have you believe it is the result of man-made worldwide climate change.  I submit that it may be man-made, but not in the way that the pundits will have you believe.  Regardless of the method of causing the drought, it is here.  Research by Eric deCarbonnel shows a catastrophic fall in food production across the globe in 2009 alone[9].

The third and following consequences read as follows,

I’ll send the wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number so that your roads become desolate.

I’ll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I’ll send a pestilence. As a result, you’ll be delivered into the control of your enemies.

“When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they’ll return back your bread by weight. You’ll eat but won’t be satisfied.

I’ll oppose you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. At that time you’ll eat the flesh of your sons and you’ll eat the flesh of your daughters.

“I’ll destroy your high places and cut down your sun-pillars. Then I’ll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols.

“I’ll loathe you. I’ll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don’t have to smell the scent of your soothing odors.

“I’ll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished.”

 “I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins.

“Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it.

“As for the remnants among you, I’ll bring despair in their hearts in the land of their enemies so that even the sound of a blown leaf will chase them and they flee as though pursued by the sword and fall when no one is pursuing. They’ll stumble over each other as though fleeing before the sword, even though no one is pursuing.

“You won’t have power to resist your enemies. You’ll perish among the nations and the land of your enemies will consume you.

The remnants among you will waste away on account of their iniquity in the land of your enemies. Indeed, they’ll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them.

It seems clear to me that we are definitely within the second stage of these listed consequences if not into the third.  The rest of the list does not get any better for us.

 

Hope of National Salvation

There is hope, however.  At each stage, God begins with a qualifier.  Leviticus 26:14 reads, “But if you won’t listen to me and obey all these commands…”.  Just prior to the second consequence God says, “If despite all of this you still don’t listen to me …”[10]. God begins the next statement of consequence with ““If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me…”[11].  Again, God gives a qualifier to the next phase of consequences when he says, “If despite these things you will don’t return to me, but live life contrary to me,…”[12].  Finally, before the last set of consequences is spelled out, God once again says, “If after all of this time you don’t listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me,…”[13].  At each step along the fall, Israel and by extension any nation, has an opportunity to repent and turn back.  Even after the entire list of consequences is complete, God offers hope to Israel beginning in Leviticus 26:40.  So too, is there hope for us.  Read the books of Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah.  In each you will see a case where the people prayed to God to repent of their own sins as well as those of their nation.  God keeps his promises and so restored Israel just as He said he would.  As individuals we must do our part to follow God so that as a nation we follow God. God is patient and gracious, but He is also just and iniquity cannot go unpunished forever.

 

Promise of Personal Salvation

I would be remise if I did not point out that even if our nation continues to fall away from His word there is still hope of salvation for the individual. Paul writes to the Galatians a very good summary of God’s plan of salvation.

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Galatians 1:3-5 (ISV)

This is the only way to fully pay for our sinful nature.  Since no man is without sin, Jesus paid that price for all of us and so it is through Him that we can have salvation and life through the coming age.

Addendum:

There is a movement afoot that is trying to establish that the founders of this nation were not religiously inclined at all.  I think I have established otherwise, however, even if it were the case that the shapers of our constitution and laws did not have a Christian basis for their work. That does not absolve us as a nation of our responsibility to our creator.

 

Bibliography

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The Holy Bible: International Standard Version Paramount, CA: Davidson Press, 2010

The Holy Bible: King James Public Domain, 1987

Mapp, Alf J. The Faiths of Our Fathers: What America’s Founders Really Believed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003

Lambert, Frank. The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. Princeton University Press, 2003

Peterson, Jim. “The Revolution of Belief: Founding Fathers, Deists, Orthodox Christians, and the Spiritual Context of 18th Century America”, 2007, <http://earlyamericanhistory.net/founding_fathers.htm>

deCarbonnel, Eric. “Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production”, 2009, <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12252>

Marr, John Stuart. “A tale of two trends: Tuberculosis and Typhoid fever.”  Journal of Community Health.  Vol. 20, no. 6. Dec 1995

 Washington, George. “Bartleby.com”, Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. New York: Bartleby.com, <http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres13.html>

 Adams, John. “Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive” John Adams Diary. The Massachusetts Historical Society, <http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=D1>

 Roland, Jon. Selected Works of James Madison. “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments”, < http://www.constitution.org/jm/17850620_remon.htm>

 

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 [1] The Faiths of Our Fathers: What America’s Founders Really Believed by Alf J. Mapp Jr.

[2] The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America by Frank Lambert.

[3] The Revolution of Belief Founding Fathers, Deists, Orthodox Christians, and the Spiritual Context of 18th Century America © 2007, by Jim Peterson http://earlyamericanhistory.net/founding_fathers.htm

[4]  President George Washington’s Inaugural Speech <http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres13.html>

[5]  John Adams Diary http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=D1

[6] Memorial and Remonstrance <http://www.constitution.org/jm/17850620_remon.htm>

[7] Council of Jerusalem as written in Acts 15.

[8] A tale of two trends: Tuberculosis and Typhoid fever.  Journal of Community Health.  Vol. 20, no. 6. Dec 1995.  Human Sciences Press, Inc.  ISSN: 0094-5145 (print) 1573-3610 (online)

[9] Source: Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production  by Eric deCarbonnel <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12252>

[10] Leviticus 26:18 (ISV)

[11] Leviticus 26:21 (ISV)

[12] Leviticus 26:23 (ISV)

[13] Leviticus 26:27 (ISV)

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This document can be downloaded in PDF format through the following link: Lev26 and US.pdf.  It is also on the links section to the right.

If you wish to send a comment to the author regarding this paper, please send mail to .

It has come to my attention that the form previously attached to this article was not working.  I made several attempts to fix it to no avail.  At the risk of the web spiders now grabbing the email address above and sending me tons of spam, I have posted the webmaster email address for anyone who wishes to send a comment.

I want to know when programmers who are professing to teach something became so lazy.  Time and time again I see learners asking a question about how to perform some programming task and time and time again I see someone inevitably direct them to “read the source”. 

It is a lazy way to teach and a terrible way to learn.  It is akin to teaching a student mechanic to learn how an engine works by telling him to open the hood of a truck and look at one.

There are cases in a programmer’s career where they have to “read the source”.  As a computer scientist you may even have to analyze the efficiency of a given algorithm in which case reading the source is required.  Learning new skills, however, is not one of those cases.  Reading the source  is a last resort when the originator isn’t a teacher or professing to try to teach the technique to someone.  However, it seems to be the norm today.  One more way people can either feel superior (through “I know something you don’t”) or more likely, “I’m really too lazy to explain, so read the source”.  I’m sure they are thinking themselves to be clever in making you look  it up yourself.

I once had a professor threaten to punish his students if he caught them cheating by making them read each other’s source code.

Trying to learn from “reading the source” is doable but its lazy on the part of the teacher, its painful on the part of the student and terribly inefficent.  If I ever write a tutorial on some programming technique, I will not make you “read the source”.  Do your students a favor.  Do yourself a favor.  Stop telling people to “read the source”.

Microsoft has announced that there is a VBScript vulnerability that some nefarious web sites are using to hijack your computer.  Apparently by getting you to press F1 (for help) the vulnerability between the VBScript system and the Help system can be exploited.  I don’t know how these things get through, well I have my theories, but still, don’t trust anything you see on the web.

Source: Don’t press F1

Today I happened to receive an email scam I found particularly funny.  It isn’t the first scam attempt I have received but it was the first one that claimed to be from an account from my own domain.

I own this domain, through aplus.net, and thus I know for a fact that the so called notifications account does not exist on it.

So this brought to mind that for any readers that may stumble upon this blog, I could give out some email security advice.

First, don’t trust anything you see in email.  If that little voice in the back of your mind is telling you it isn’t right, verify it the message through a different source.  IE: don’t call the number listed on the email, don’t click the links.  Find a method of contact with the alleged sender through another source.  For instance, if the email says its from USBank, find their number and call them to ask about the email.

These emails pretend to be someone that sounds important.  Anything from an exiled Nigerian prince to Wells Fargo Bank.  They either try to direct you to an web address to get you to enter personal information or account information or they install malicious software on your computer.  These are known as phishing emails or trojans.  Sometimes they look quite convincing, but always beware of anything you see in email.

It is a little known fact that the email protocols don’t actually check or care what the senders email is.  It only cares for the receiver.  Therefore, a person can put anything they want into the sender field.  This is a fact that the scammers are using to great success.

There are some clues you can use to tell you if an email is a scam.  I’ll list some here.

• Most, so far all the ones I’ve seen, phishing and email scam attempts have bad grammar and/or improper spelling.  That should be an easy red flag for you.
• Just about absolutely nobody who maintains accounts will ask you for your password and username.  They own the accounts and don’t need them.  If you are really worried, contact them through another method, but do not click the link in the phishing mail.
• The subject line is blank.
• Check the headers.  Click the Tools>>Options if you are using Outlook.  Other email programs will have other ways to access the header.  This header will tell you much more information.  Like what server really sent the email.  In many cases, you can send the header and email text to abuse@domain.net.  That is, whatever domain sent the email may be a co-opted server and their IT department may like to know.  If its a phishing attempt from your bank, just send the email and header to abuse@yourbank.net.  Replace yourbank.net with the name of your bank’s domain.

You can trace the ip address to its source through the headers but if you aren’t comfortable with headers, and don’t trust the email and don’t know the sender, just delete it without looking at it.  It doesn’t mean you are rude, it means you are protecting yourself.

Last weekend Steam had Mass Effect on a sale price of about 10 dollars. When I had originally heard of the game I thought it sounded like a very cool premise. Then they said it was going to be XBox only. So I boycotted it.  It did eventually come out for the PC but I still stayed away from it.   Finally, being at the cheap sale price was too much for me to pass it up.  It turns out I was impressed enough with the game to want to write about it.

*NOTE:  There are some spoilers in this. Being this game has been out a long time, I can’t imagine you’d not find them somewhere else.  However, part of my enjoyment of such game is not having it spoiled so be warned.  At least one plot element is mentioned below.*

I have long felt that games can be an art form much like movies or books.   There a have been many attempts at doing this in the past, but few titles have achieved that goal.  Mass Effect does so.  It isn’t at a blockbuster level but it is enough that I can say that this game does indeed achieve the goal its producer wanted of making you feel like you are part of a movie.  That is both good and bad.

It is good because its fun to be part of an epic space opera instead of a passive observer of one.  This game wasn’t just a shooter poorly trying to disguise itself as something deeper by throwing in some cheap dialog.  There is tons of dialog.  That’s the part that is both good and bad.  Its good because any good story is about the characters and the dialog between them.   Its not about the special effects.  However, there were a few points in the game were t his dialog became extremely annoying.  The worst being right when the Matriarch temporarily escapes the Sovereign’s indoctrination.  I had to repeat that dialog sequence at least a dozen times because immediately afterward is a shoot out where you have very little room to maneuver.  Once I fell through the floor, but mostly I just didn’t have time to react.  Since you can do this portion of the game in any order, other players may not have had as hard a time as coming later you will likely have better equipment.  This occurs in a few other places as well, but wasn’t quite as bad as here.  For instance, just before you are ambushed by rogue corporate security goons in much the same way and have to repeat that content a few times in a row.   Overall, however, it worked.  The mix of down time with action was just about right.  The player doesn’t feel overwhelmed with constant action and you get to progress the story in ways far better than reading a note or just having to make it up as you shoot along.

Speaking of shooting.  The game is pretty much a shooter with dialog elements.  Which is ok.  I did like the ability to use cover very much.  So much so that I really do miss it now in other games.  The squad command interface felt bulky as well as changing different types of bullets.  Most of the time I didn’t really understand the upgrades, but it wasn’t totally un-useable.  I wasn’t impressed with the squad behavior itself so much.

While I could tell them to take cover or come out and fight, they would do so in odd ways.  Mostly they’d just stand around trading shots and get hit a lot.    More than once I’d end up having to finish off a fire fight along because my two buddies had no sense of self preservation.

You can tell your squad to take cover, and I did that.   What would happen in that case is they’d stand behind the box or wall and do nothing unless some bad guy ran all the way up into view.  So again, I’d end up finishing the combat sequences mostly on my own.

On the subject of boss fights.  I really never liked the exclusive “boss” fights found in most games.  Sure they exist here, but the developers did a good job of making it just feel like part of the story.  I  liked that.  No endlessly searching that one special weakness.  What I particularly like was this game lacked the stupidly-impossible boss fight at the end.  The story was what I was in the game for, not performing perfectly executed attacks that require a great deal of luck.

The dialog interface itself was handled very well.  You have a menu of short descriptors of what you wanted to say displayed rather than the entire response in text.  It didn’t blot out the screen either.  A nice simple round selector gadget at the bottom of the screen worked out very nicely.

There are a number of complaints about the map layouts, especially for the side quest off world locations.  I don’t seem to have been bothered by that as much as others. Sure I noticed it but what I did notice was the seemingly arbitrary layouts of the main quest maps.  It wasn’t quite as bad as a number of games I’ve played where the layouts just don’t make any sense at all but they did still feel contrived to just extend the play time to get to one’s goal.  In particular all the driving sequences.  Slap an S shaped canyon road in and throw some bad guys at locations along the way.  Who would build such a road?  I would have preferred a more realistic kind of layout.  More open ended rather than a disguised tunnel to travel down to your next point of interest.

One other note of interest.  The game seemed a lot like Advent Rising.  I was disappointed in Rising, way too much of all the wrong stuff I mentioned above, but the aliens even looked alike.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find out some of the same people worked on both games.

One thing that could have been better was better training in the different abilities of the Mako (which handled very oddly) and some of the combat abilities.  I also saw that sometimes an achievement notice would pop up but had no idea what that was about.  The first time driving the Mako around I had no clue what to expect or how to operate it.  Which is to be expected.  As a result I pretty much ran into stuff a lot causing the thing to fly around strangely.  the physics on the thing just felt funny and it over-steered easily.  I also ran into combat head on.  Hey, I’m in a tank I can run down some of these guys.  That didn’t work.  As hitting stuff made you fly around in ways that didn’t seem logical and the guys just get up again.  I eventually did get it figured out though making minor steering adjustments was still hard to do.  As for the combat abilities, I largely ignored them until the later half of the game because they just didn’t “click” as to their use.  Even then, I largely used them on the aforementioned (and well done) “boss” fights (including the Matriarch one I talked about).

One of the issues with role playing games is replay-ability.  I do come back and replay some but its usually many years between.  I also don’t re-read books because the way my mind works, as soon as I start reading the first few words, the entire rest of the story comes back to mind and I have no need to continue re-reading.  However, I have already been tempted to re play this game.

All in all, I’d recommend this game to anyone who likes role playing games on the computer.  My fear for the future is that it may be turned into a full on shooter with a shallow story just to milk money from the franchise, but we’ll see.  It was originally planned as a three part epic space opera.  I hope it gets a chance to be seen to its completion.

It has come to my attention that several people think that the story in the remake of ‘V’ is meant to be anti-Obama.  That isn’t the only link that makes the assumption.  There are several, just search Google and you’ll have plenty to pick from.

Now, all I can imagine is that these people have never actually seen the original airing of the show.  The story was the same.  The only difference being that there was no Obama.

Secondly, it is apparent there is nothing in these people’s lives beyond Obama.

There is life outside the white house.  The world does not revolve around Obama.  Not everything is about politics.  Move on, be free, be happy.

Pakistan has had enough of the terrorists attempting to dictate their governmental policy.  Rather than being a part of the system, these people decided that blowing up and otherwise intimidating the populace would get them the concessions they wanted.  Pakistan even tried it the “nice” way when they brokered a peace agreement with the Taliban.  In return, the Taliban tried to take more territory.  Showing the reason you can’t deal with terrorists.

So, the Pakistani army took back the Swat valley.  Having tried in good faith to appease the Taliban, they are now left only with fighting them back.  Pakistan belongs to the Pakistani people who observe the rule of law.  Now, the Pakistani army is engaged in an offensive in the Taliban’s home territory.

To this I say, “Good on them.”  They made plans, prepared and are moving with a resolve to stop the attempted takeover by criminal elements within their own country.  We can see that it is working.  The enemy has stepped up their attacks in an effort to deter popular support for this endeavor.  Surely nobody is surprised by these cowardly tactics on the part of the Taliban.

I wish the Pakistani army all the best in their efforts.  Take back your country.  Rule with a just and merciful hand.