“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
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The Lust for Money is the Root of All Sorts of Evil
If you haven’t seen the Showtime series “Billions”, you should watch it. It may seem over the top, but it’s not.
In one of the Republican debates, Donald Trump said that he gave money to Hillary Clinton while she was a New York senator and that he gave money to other political candidates as well. He did it, he said, because when he wanted something, he got it.
You can bet that Trump got what he wanted at least 90% of the time. When a big donor makes a request, there had better be a very good reason to say “no”.
“No” is a word that people like Trump don’t want to hear.
When Trump whistled, Hillary Clinton came running wagging her tail behind her. You can bank on it.
In the early days of my academic career, I was associate dean of my school. Admissions and student affairs were under my umbrella. One day during a meeting of our school’s advisory board, a member of the board asked me to talk about the admission process I used.
I told him that we wanted to be scrupulously fair. As an academic institution, our first priority was academic performance, but we looked at many other variables to determine leadership potential.
He liked most of what I told him, but he prodded me for more information on what I meant by “scrupulously fair”. He didn’t like my response.
To him, legacy and contributions (money and other things) to the school should have been given more weight than I was willing to concede. There was no brouhaha, but he let it be known that contributions to the school were very important.
I agreed, but I made it clear to him and the board that academic performance and leadership potential were the primary drivers in admission decisions as they should be. The board agreed.
One member of our board was from a family that owned a chain of department stores. His family donated a scholarship to the school for students who had financial needs. It was named after his family.
As scholarships went, it was quite modest. That didn’t matter to me. Each donor got the royal treatment no matter what the size of the contribution. Each year when we announced scholarship recipients, I arranged a lunch for the donor and the recipient in the Colonnade Hotel. The dean and I were there, too. We did this for every scholarship.
The Colonnade Hotel isn’t really a Hotel. It’s a meeting place for faculty and their guests. Lunch is served 5 days a week, and there are private meeting rooms upstairs that faculty and administrators use for various purposes. It’s part of Thomas Jefferson’s original Academical Village on the Range.
Saying that it is prestigious is an understatement. Faculty, students, and administrators tended to take it for granted because it’s part of our home, but to our guests, it was a very special place.
One year during lunch for the donor and recipient of the family scholarship that I mentioned, the student told the donor that her family had a house on some lake in Virginia. I don’t remember which one and it’s not important here, but it was important to the donor.
An hour or so after the lunch, the dean called me and said that he wanted to speak with me. I went to his office, and he told me about the lake house. The donor was upset because in his world no family that could afford a lake house had a financial need.
The dean was an honorable man and a Virginia Gentleman. Fairness was as important to him as it was to me. I explained that the financial need data was given to me by the Admissions Office and that my job was to select the best students who had financial needs according to that data.
Since we didn’t keep that kind of information on our students, it was the only data that I had to rely on. He agreed and told me about something else that the donor said to him.
The Colonnade Hotel was directly across the street from our school. To get there, we had to walk through the faculty parking lot. One of our faculty members had a Cadillac Seville. It was the early 1980s, and the Seville was Cadillac’s latest luxury model.
The donor was disturbed by the fact that a faculty member drove a Cadillac Seville. In his world, faculty shouldn’t be able to afford one.
The dean was on the spot, so he explained the facts. The faculty member in question was the retired partner in charge of personnel for one the world’s leading accounting firms at that time—Peat Marwick Mitchell. Today it’s known as KPMG.
When the donor heard the facts, he was satisfied. In his world, it was okay for the partner in charge of personnel for one of the world’s leading accounting firms to drive a Seville.
My attitude toward the donor changed dramatically that day. A few years later, he committed suicide. As I heard it, he walked onto a busy highway, got down on his knees as if to pray, and waited for a vehicle to deliver the fatal blow.
He got what he wanted. A tractor-trailer truck driver will have to live with that horrific memory for the rest of his life. I suppose that in the donor’s world he couldn’t kill himself, but he could arrange things so that an innocent victim would do it for him. Think of it as death by tractor-trailer truck.
I’m not making light of a man taking his own life. I’m simply presenting the facts and some analysis. His obsession with wealth was profound. It determined his perspectives on everything including where people should be allowed to live and recreate and what kinds of cars they should be allowed to drive. Candidly, I was flabbergasted.
Thinking like that permeated Russian society during the days of the Soviet Union. It has never been a part of our culture. I hope it never will be.
On another occasion, a multi-billionaire moved to Albemarle County. His wife wanted to associate herself with the University of Virginia and with Hollywood hotshots. She approached the president’s wife and explained that she wanted to start a film festival.
What better place to have it, she said, than UVA. Seeing the fundraising potential, the president’s wife told the president.
This is a very long story, but I’m going to make it short. If I ever write a book titled The Film Flam, it will include all the details.
The president was not from UVA. He had not been enculturated properly, so he launched out on his own to make the film festival happen. He even went so far as to involve the Governor of Virginia, Gerald Baliles, and to announce The Virginia Festival of American Film at a gala event in Hollywood with the governor in tow.
No one on the university’s Board of Visitors had heard anything about the film festival until it was announced in the newspapers. Since they had the authority to commit university resources, the fact that they didn’t know about it was a serious problem.
As some presidents are prone to do, he simply told the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to make it happen. As the date for the film festival was drawing near, the president looked into it to see how things were progressing. Much to his surprise, nothing significant had happened.
Tens of thousands of dollars had been spent. There was absolutely nothing to show for it. And the event was just a few months away.
That’s not a lot of time to line up movie stars, politicians, and other celebrities for an important event. The president was between a rock and a hard place, and he knew it.
I had served as Chuck Robb’s Policy Advisor for Regulatory Reform while he was Governor of Virginia. Robb was Baliles’ predecessor in office. Additionally, I had chaired a Governor’s Conference on Small Business for Baliles. A member of UVA’s Board of Visitors knew me well, and he also had significant political connections. He suggested to the president that he turn the film festival over to me. He did.
I’ll stop there, but I want to emphasize this point: the lust for money leads to all sorts of mischief. It can warp our perspective and prevent us from seeing right and wrong clearly.
As I said, if I decide to write that book, you will want to read it.
The billionaire’s wife didn’t earn the money, but she knew how to use her husband’s wealth to her advantage. The president and his wife wanted to get their hands on some of her husband’s money for the university. As I see it, all of them were guided by an inordinate interest in money to their own detriment.
The apostle Paul said, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6: 10)
We live in a time when the lust for money is as great as it ever has been. Money is the tail that wags the dog in politics. Many people are attracted to politics because they think it’s the path to fame and fortune. Bill and Hillary Clinton are great examples of this, but there are many others.
People who have worked hard to amass a fortune have an attitude toward other people with wealth that is different from the attitudes of people like Hillary Clinton.
Clinton types cozy up to people with wealth for personal gain. Their targets understand what’s happening and allow it because they are interested in potential gain as well.
Many people would trade their souls for money. Many have traded their souls for money.
At this point, that’s one thing we shouldn’t have to worry about with Donald Trump. He doesn’t need more money because he’s already rich. I believe that means he’s not as likely as Clinton is to do stupid things to get more money.
Hillary Clinton has proven time and time again that she is a scoundrel. I think she would walk across a burning desert barefooted if there was a dollar to be had on the other side.
That’s who she is, and that’s who she always has been.
I’m not endorsing Trump, but I am saying this: if it comes down to Trump or Clinton, there is no doubt in my mind about who I will support. It will be Donald Trump with no hesitation.
See “Does Hillary’s resume make her the ‘best-qualified’ candidate?”: “A list of offices held is a flimsy guide to the quality of a presidential candidate. Integrity, vision, humility, consistency of purpose, a willingness to learn — those are far more reliable indicators of excellence in a potential president. Clinton has a fine resume. But history repeatedly reminds us that it takes more than that to make a fine president.”
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His Name is Yahweh, the website, is a companion of the book His Name is Yahweh. Both of them explain the importance of God’s Name.
The website is loaded with factual information that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Yahweh is our Savior and that the Messiah is Yahweh.
I hope you will take a few minutes and explore the website. I also hope you will share it with your friends and family.
It’s time for believers to tell the world about our God by His Name—Yahweh.
To see videos that explain the importance of Yahweh’s Name, click here.
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SnyderTalk Comment: As Paul said, “The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.”
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Sarah Jacobs—A photographer got an exclusive look at Elizabeth Taylor’s home, clothing, and jewelry collection just before she died — here are her stunning photos: When social documentary photographer Catherine Opie embarked on the project of documenting the home of actress Elizabeth Taylor in November of 2010, no one could have anticipated just how timely her visit was. Midway through the project, Taylor died after a long struggle with congestive heart failure. Her passing brought a heavier weight to Opie’s work, and it became a race against the clock to finish up before Taylor’s possessions were sold.
SnyderTalk Comment: Click on the title and take a look at some of Elizabeth Taylor’s prized earthly possessions.
As you look over her accumulation of jewelry and other things, remember that she is dead. The day she died, she left everything behind. Nothing she owned could have purchased her way into Yahweh’s kingdom.
That’s the way it is for everyone. This is the only thing that Yahweh will want to know: are you covered by the Messiah’s blood sacrifice? The answer will be “yes” or “no”. There is no in-between.
Algemeiner—As Terror Rages in Israel, Hundreds of Ex-Combat Troops Get Gun Licenses: The Israeli Public Security Ministry on Thursday issued 304 firearm licenses to former members of the IDF’s anti-terrorist unit, Duvdevan. The decision was made in light of the dramatic rise in terrorism across Israel in recent months, and as part of Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan’s stated policy of easing the criteria for carrying a firearm. “Issuing gun licenses to former Duvdevan members is a sensible step due to the security realities, and it will enhance our response capabilities in cases of possible terrorist attacks,” Erdan said. “There is a pressing need for far more trained civilians in the streets, who can save lives,” he added.
SnyderTalk Comment: When I first started exploring Israel, it was common to see ordinary people on the streets carrying guns. After several years, that changed. Today, it’s not common to see ordinary people carrying guns.
I’m glad things are changing back. More than any other country with which I am familiar, Israel needs more guns on the street.
Don’t get me wrong. We need more guns on the street in the U.S., too, but Israel faces problems that we don’t have at this point.
Times of Israel— Arab Israeli MKs meet relatives of Palestinian terrorists: Knesset members from the Joint (Arab) List met this week with relatives of Palestinian terrorists killed by Israeli security forces as they were carrying out attacks, including some who had killed Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the Knesset members on Thursday evening, saying they were “unworthy of serving” as lawmakers. An organization representing the families of Palestinian “martyrs” invited all lawmakers from the Joint (Arab) List, which comprises three parties, to meet in Jerusalem. Three MKs — Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas — showed up at the meeting Tuesday, all members of Balad, an Arab nationalist party whose members have identified with Palestinian violence in the past.
Israel Hayom— Arab MKs under fire for meeting terrorists’ families: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said Thursday they plan to file personal complaints with the Knesset’s Ethics Committee against Balad MKs Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas, who met with Palestinian terrorists’ families earlier this week. Balad is one of the factions that comprise the Joint Arab List, alongside Ra’am-Ta’al and Hadash.
SnyderTalk Comment: There is a lesson to be learned from this: you can’t shame Palestinians because far too many of them have no sense of shame. It’s not part of their “culture”.
I really don’t like using the word “culture” in connection with Palestinians. It applies, but I don’t like using it anyway.
Algemeiner— Father of Slain 19-Year-Old Border Policewoman at Funeral: ‘How Can I Part With You?’: Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral on Thursday afternoon of the Israeli Border Policewoman who died of wounds sustained during Wednesday’s shooting and stabbing attack in east Jerusalem, the Hebrew news site nrg reported. Nineteen-year-old Cpl. Hadar Cohen was buried at the Yehud military cemetery, with family, friends, comrades and government officials in attendance. Also there to pay her last respects was Ravit Mirishvili, the other Border Policewoman who was wounded in the attack.
Times of Israel— Damascus Gate killers planned to attack group of civilians, police believe: Israeli security officials said Wednesday’s fatal attack at the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, in which Border Police officer Hadar Cohen was killed and a second policewoman badly injured, marked “an escalation” in the ongoing terror wave. The three West Bank Palestinians who stabbed and shot at the Israeli forces had been sitting and waiting for a large group of Israeli civilians to enter or leave the Old City, and had planned to target them, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported on Wednesday evening, citing police sources. “As far as we can tell from the armaments, [the terrorists] planned a larger, more sophisticated attack,” Jerusalem Deputy Police Chief Avshalom Peled said. “This is an escalation from what we’ve seen thus far. The police officers prevented a combined and much larger attack.”
The Arab Weekly— Iran deploys a new special force in Syria: Almost five years into Syria’s civil war and facing rising combat fatalities, Iran is deploying more and more military units — and all from its most trusted military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — into the charnel-house combat zone to secure the survival of its key Arab ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. The latest units deployed in Syria, to judge by a survey of Iranian nationals killed in combat in Syria, are from the IRGC’s Saberin Brigade, the corps’ special forces group of several battalions. Their commitment, along with the elite al-Quds Force, to keep Assad in power underlines the military power Tehran’s Shia leadership is having to deploy to save the quasi-Shia Assad regime.
ABC News— Top Israeli General Calls IS ‘Our Enemy’: A top Israeli general said Wednesday that the Islamic State group is “our enemy” and that Israel is sharing intelligence with allies battling the extremists despite remaining on the sidelines of Syria’s civil war. Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon said that while Iran remains the greatest threat to Israel, the IS group is also a dangerous adversary. Israel has kept its distance from the civil war on its northern doorstep, wary of appearing to side with any of the warring parties — nearly all of which are hostile to it. But Alon, who heads the military’s operations branch, told reporters that Israel is essentially part of the international coalition against IS and shares intelligence with its allies. “From Israel’s perspective, we definitely see Daesh as an enemy,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
Tablet Magazine— America Makes a U-Turn in the Middle East: The administration of President Barack Obama seldom missed an opportunity to insist that the alternative to the Iran nuclear deal was a war with Iran, a prospect that has now presumably been kicked further down the road. Middle Easterners are not so lucky: They get to fight their wars with Iran right now. Where America stands on the question of the wars that Iran is fueling across the Middle East has been obscured to some extent by outdated expectations, diplomatic niceties, and deliberate smoke-screens. But it would be wrong to take pro forma statements about America’s alliances with old friends like Turkey, or Saudi Arabia, or Israel at anything like face value. The first thing the Obama Administration did following the recent burning of the Saudi embassy and consulate in Iran by a state-sponsored mob was not to condemn this assault on a longtime U.S. ally. Rather, the White House immediately launched a media campaign pushing the message that the problem was actually Saudi Arabia, and, as anonymous U.S. officials suggested on background, maybe it was time to reconsider America’s regional alliances.
IPT News— Hizballah Using Advanced, Iranian Anti-Tank Missiles in Syria: Hizballah terrorists are using Iranian-made anti-tank missiles in Syria that could be used against Israel in a future confrontation, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has learned. On Sunday, Iranian news agency ABNA reported that Hizballah is using Toophan anti-tank missiles manufactured by Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization. The Toophan is a reverse-engineered version of the American military BGM-71 TOW missile, with a payload of 3.6 kg warhead that is capable of penetrating up to 550mm of steel armor. The missile can reach a top speed of 310 m/s, with a range of 3,850m.
Rabbi Benjamin Blech—Ban Ki-Moon Gets it Wrong Again: Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, found himself deluged with an unexpected and overwhelming negative press from countless sources upset by his seemingly cavalier sanction of barbaric acts of terrorism as understandable and excusable expressions of basic “human nature.” This week he wrote an op-ed in the New York Times to address the criticism and “explain himself.” In an essay with the ominous title “Don’t Shoot The Messenger,” Ban Ki-Moon tries to paint himself as a misunderstood statesman and spokesman for peace whose message was simply misinterpreted. He would have us believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as Israeli officials who were outraged by his remarks did him an injustice and shot the messenger instead of being grateful for the message.
Jerusalem Post— Ban Ki-Moon doubles down on justifying murdered Jews: By purposely omitting the human rights violations of the Palestinian Authority against their own people, Ban shows that he is far more concerned with condemning Israel than protecting Palestinians.
Lee Smith— The ‘Washington Post’ Pulls Out of Iran, While the ‘New York Times’ Cashes In: Washington Post editor-in-chief Marty Baron says that moving forward, the Iranian government’s treatment of Post correspondent Jason Rezaian—who was imprisoned for nearly two years on trumped-up charges before his release last month—will definitely affect how his paper covers Iran. “Right now we’re not in a position to be able to put a correspondent there,” Baron told the Voice of America. “We’ve had no discussions with the Iranian government about having another correspondent there, and we would need some good assurances from the government that a correspondent there would not be arrested, as Jason was.”
Douglas Murray—Facebook’s War on Freedom of Speech: It was only a few weeks ago that Facebook was forced to back down when caught permitting anti-Israel postings, but censoring equivalent anti-Palestinian postings. Now one of the most sinister stories of the past year was hardly even reported. In September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook at a UN development summit in New York. As they sat down, Chancellor Merkel’s microphone, still on, recorded Merkel asking Zuckerberg what could be done to stop anti-immigration postings being written on Facebook. She asked if it was something he was working on, and he assured her it was.
Michael Curtis— France Proposes Peace in the Middle East: In recent years the government of France has tried to play a role in Middle Eastern affairs, and in the struggle against Islamist terrorism. It has been particularly eager to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. In December 2014 France proposed an international conference to discuss the issue within a two year framework. On Friday January 29, 2016 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, qualifying the 2014 proposal, outlined the French position in two parts. One part was that France would organize an international conference, including the European countries, the U.S., and Arab countries, to agree on a two state solution, Israel and Palestine. The other part, considerably more controversial, was that France would “ live up to our responsibilities” by recognizing Palestine as an independent state if the conference was unsuccessful.
Judith Bergman—France: An Antisemitic Hell for Jews: In France, it is not just antisemitism from Muslim North Africans and Arabs from the Middle East that is haunting the Jewish community. In a recent poll, conducted over 18 months by Ipsos and sponsored by the French Judaism Foundation, the “native” French showed that they are still as antisemitic as ever. Fifty-six percent of the French believe that Jews “have a lot of power,” and 40% said that Jews are ”a little too present in the media.” Thirteen percent believe that there are too many Jews in France, whereas an unbelievable 60% believe that Jews are at least partly to blame themselves for the rise in antisemitism, with 91% saying that Jews “are very insular.”
Washington Post— Think Merkel isn’t in trouble? Look at these charts.: The German chancellor, once one of the most popular politicians in Europe if not the world, is finding herself increasingly isolated from both other world leaders and her own electorate. The root cause of her situation seems to be quite simple: Merkel’s embrace of refugees and migrants has backfired among her peers, her supporters and her opponents.
SnyderTalk Comment: This result was predictable. Stupid decisions have consequences.
I’m not suggesting that Merkel is a stupid person, but what she has done with regard to so-called “refugees” from Syria has been stupid.
I’m looking at the facts. They tell the tale in no uncertain terms.
Most of the “refugees” are jihadists. That’s been clear since Day One.
Allowing them to enter Germany was a serious mistake for which Merkel and her party will pay dearly at the polls.
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His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important. It’s available in eBook format and in paperback. It’s also available for free in PDF format.
- God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
- “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
- “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
- Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8: 58)
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Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now. There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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Other Books by Neil Snyder
- Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming. Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days. Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall. Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace. With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life? Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide. It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided. They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
See “His Name is Yahweh”.
