April 18, 2016 SnyderTalk: Bad Habits Produce Bad Results

1--Intro Covering Israel and ME

“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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2--SnyderTalk Editorial 5 New Temple MT

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Bad Habits Produce Bad Results

In an article for The Atlantic titled “Poverty, Compounded”, Gillian White perpetuates a common myth.  She presents lots of data, but misses the essential fact.

Poverty, especially generational poverty, is a product of bad habits that are learned, repeated, and passed down from parents to children.  The same is true for other maladies that plague society.

What I’m about to say is not politically correct.  Thankfully, this is SnyderTalk so I don’t have to be politically correct.

Most people who are stuck in poverty experience that situation because of bad choices they have made.  Stated another way, no one does it to them.  They do it to themselves.

Most of them learned how to make bad choices from their parents who learned it from their parents and so on.  For example, see “The crippling thing about growing up poor that stays with you forever”.

Obese but Starving?

Obese people are no different.  They learn and repeat bad habits, too.  By the way, there are far more obese people in the U.S. than there are people living in poverty.  That fact attracts too little attention.

According to government reports, many obese people live in poverty.  That’s hard to swallow.

If you have stood in line at the supermarket behind an obese person and watched her pay for her cart full of junk food with food stamps, you have witnessed the problem firsthand.  It’s bad habits.

There are serious problems with the “poverty data” reported by our government.  I don’t buy what they are selling because it makes no sense.

The Poor Among Us

Here’s another example.  Chronic debtors learn to buy things they don’t need and to pay for them with credit—i.e., money they don’t have—from their parents who learned it from their parents and so on.

Bad habits are the culprit.  People learn them and resist changing them, sometimes unto death.

Government handout programs don’t correct bad habits so they can’t solve the problem of the poor.

Handout programs don’t even begin to address the problem.  In fact, they do more harm than good by perpetuating bad habits.

Misguided Compassion

Misguided compassion is just as dangerous, probably more dangerous, than lack of compassion.  Just because it feels good doesn’t mean we should do it.

Have you ever wondered why so many lottery winners end up worse off financially than they were before they won the lottery?

I know the reason.  That infusion of unexpected and unearned cash feeds bad habits and makes them worse.  On top of that, bankers are anxious to loan money to lottery winners because they appear to be financially well-off for a brief period.

Lotteries create perfect storms for winners.  It’s like pouring gasoline on a fire.

This is the bottom line: if people aren’t willing to change their bad habits, they will always have the problems that bad habits produce.

As I said, this is not politically correct, but it is true and this is SnyderTalk.

Telling the Truth is not Unchristian

Some people will reject what I’m saying and accuse me of being “unchristian”  and “heartless” for suggesting that people who are determined to hurt themselves can’t be helped until they change their ways.

They are wrong.  Paul alludes to the problem I’m addressing:

“For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

Telling the truth is not unchristian or heartless.

Government is a Lot Like Us—Bad Habits Included

Our government has bad habits, too.  That should come as no surprise.  We elect them, and as a group, our elected officials look a lot like us.

See “With help of lawmakers, Illinois public schools now $20 billion in debt”.

Bad habits are worse in government because they punish prudent people and reward chronic abusers.  Habitual largess isn’t the cure for bloated spending any more than food stamps are the cure for poverty.

See the video below:

People like Karen Lewis are responsible for the Illinois public school debt problem.  So are Rahm Emanuel and many other government officials in Illinois.  Ultimately, the people of Illinois are responsible because they permit the problem to persist.

Again, bad habits are the root cause of most problems.  We can’t fix the problems until we address the habits.

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3--HNIY the Website

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His Name is Yahweh, the website, is a companion of the book His Name is Yahweh.

To see videos that explain the importance of God’s Name, click here.

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13--Perspectives 2

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1: Times of IsraelIran aims to buy fighter jets, advanced tanks from Russia:

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan is planning to raise the purchase of warplanes and tanks during an upcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart in Moscow, Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars reported Friday, citing Russian media.

An official at the Iranian Embassy in Moscow said it was “quite possible” that the April 26-27 talks between Dehghan and Sergei Shoigu would include the issue, Fars said, again quoting the Interfax news agency.

According to the reports, the Islamic Republic is eyeing the Su-30SM jet, a “two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft,” which is suitable “for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions,” as well as the advanced T-90 tank.

2: Dawn‘No leader in Muslim world willing to take on sectarianism’:

Noting that the fragmentation of troubled Arab states, the ‘death’ of minorities, and the rise of sectarianism in the Muslim world were the primary challenges facing the Middle East, political analyst Ahmed Rashid said on Friday that no Muslim leader had the guts to take a stand against these menaces.

“The Shia-Sunni rivalry is something that no leader in the Muslim world is willing to tackle. No Muslim leader is willing to stand up today against the kind of killing and sectarianism that is going on today,” he said, in a reference to the tactics of the self-styled Islamic State (IS).

Speaking to former foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar at a session entitled ‘Jihad and Descent into Chaos’, Mr Rashid lamented that, “non-Muslims have lived in the Middle East for thousands of years, longer than Muslims. No Muslim country in all of history has been 100pc Muslim, they have always had minorities living amongst them. But today we are seeing the end of this plurality.”

0 ST Picture 1

SnyderTalk Comment:

Turning a blind eye to the problem won’t solve it.

3: Business Insider‘Too big to fail’ banks and the US government are playing an incredibly dangerous game:

The eight largest banks in the US are struggling to tell federal regulators just how they would die, and it could be because the two sides are playing a very dangerous game.

When we say “how they’ll die” it’s not some morbid curiosity. The eight “too big to fail” banks are required to submit a document called a living will to the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. This would describe how, in the event of a 2008-like financial meltdown, the institutions could unwind without needing another bank bailout or crashing the US economy.

On Wednesday, five of the eight banks failed this test outright, while two more received just one of the two necessary approvals. Only Citigroup got the sign-off from both the Fed and FDIC.

SnyderTalk Comment:

See “IMF members urge ‘growth-friendly’ spending, new lending tools”.

That’s a good idea, but throwing money at the problem isn’t the solution.  Spending must be targeted and monitored closely.  That’s where government fails.

4: Fox NewsReport: Saudis vow to sell US assets if Congress decides gov was involved in 9/11:

Saudi Arabia has reportedly told the Obama administration and congressional leaders that it will sell billions of dollars in U.S. financial assets if Congress passes a bill to make the Saudi government legally responsible for any role in the 9/11 attacks.

SnyderTalk Comment:

Don’t underestimate the importance of sovereign nations deciding to sell U.S. securities.

I’m not suggesting that we should not do the right thing.  I’m merely pointing out that doing the right thing has consequences.  Some of them are painful.

So what else is new?  No pain, no gain.

See “Saudi Arabia to Launch Plan for the Future April 25, Prince Says”.

Oil money has insulated Saudi leaders from criticism for far too long.  That must change.

5: Washington PostA British politician says Barack Obama is the most anti-British president ever:

Ahead of President Obama’s upcoming visit to the country, a prominent British politician has dubbed the American leader the most “anti-British” U.S. president in history.

“Mercifully, this American president, who is the most anti-British American president there has ever been, won’t be in office for much longer, and I hope will be replaced by somebody rather more sensible when it comes to trading relationships with this country,” Nigel Farage said Friday, according to Britain’s Press Association.

SnyderTalk Comment:

Correction: Barack Obama is the most anti-American president ever.  It manifests itself in many ways.  Anti-British and anti-Israel are two of them.

See “EU referendum: Boris Johnson accuses Barack Obama of ‘hypocrisy’”.

Johnson hit the nail on the head.

6: Guy Millière—Europe: Suicide by Jihad

The March 22 jihadist attacks in Brussels were predictable. What is surprising is that they did not take place sooner. What is also surprising is that more people were not killed. It seems that the authors of the attacks had larger projects in mind; they wanted to attack a nuclear power plant. Others may succeed in doing just that.

In the last two decades, Belgium has become the hub of jihad in Europe. The district of Molenbeek in Brussels is now a foreign Islamist territory in the heart of Belgium. It is not, however, a lawless zone: sharia law has effectively replaced Belgian law. Almost all the women wear veils or burqas; those who do not take risks. Drug trafficking and radical mosques are everyplace. The police stay outside and intervene only in cases of extreme emergency, using military-like commando operations. Other areas of Belgium, such as Shaerbeek and Anderlecht have the same status as Molenbeek.

7: Jerusalem PostNetanyahu: Extremists Are Spreading Lies about Temple Mount to Cause Riots:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Thursday of attempts to heat up the situation on the Temple Mount. “We know that there are attempts, even now, to change the downward trend in the number of [Palestinian terror] attacks. There are attempts, even now, to try to renew the agitation and violence, especially around Pesach and the Temple Mount, as we experienced earlier [in October] during the High Holidays.” Netanyahu said that as the Pesach holiday is approaching, extremists are “spreading lies” about the Temple Mount to cause riots. “There is no change in our policy regarding the status quo on the Temple Mount,” he said.

8: Elliott Abrams—American Jews and Israel’s Security:

Israel, it is said, has lost touch with young American Jews who are put off by outdated Zionist slogans and appeals for communal solidarity. The fundamental problem is said to reside in the nature of the Israeli polity and the policies of the Israeli government. But perhaps the explanation for the criticism or distancing resides not in Israeli conduct, which is actually a minor factor, but instead almost entirely in the changing nature of the American Jewish community itself. A deeper analysis suggests that we are dealing here with a far broader phenomenon in which sheer indifference may count as much as or more than critical disagreement with Israeli policies.

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15--Concentric Circles 5

“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”.

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