7 Financial Tips From the Book of Proverbs

From FEE.org (Dec. 26, 2022):

Ask someone from the millennial or Generation Z crowds about tech-related topics and you’ll likely get an encyclopedia of knowledge pouring forth. Ask those same cohorts about a financial decision or money-related matter and you just might get a deer-in-the-headlights look.

Over two-thirds of people ages 18-41 have “financial topics they want advice on,” a Harris Poll found earlier this year, “but aren’t sure how to get it.” And given that 70 percent of millennials and 65 percent of Generation Z live paycheck to paycheck, it’s not hard to imagine what types of financial advice might be needed.

Unfortunately, that last set of statistics shows that hiring a financial coach at an average of over $250 per hour is out of the question for most of those seeking advice. Lest you despair, I have good news on where to find invaluable, free financial advice, available at your fingertips. It’s liberally dispersed throughout an ancient work called the Book of Proverbs.

Here are just a few of the financial bits of wisdom that Proverbs offers.

1. Choose Diligence Over Laziness

Warnings against sloth and laziness pepper the Proverbs, many of them directly contrasting the sluggard with an ant, whose industrious nature works hard in the summer to store up food for winter. No one wants to be compared to a sloth, and many of us would likely pat ourselves on the back and contend we are not lazy bums. But Proverbs painfully points out some finer, overlooked aspects of slothfulness, such as a tendency to be wasteful, to take it easy and take multiple breaks, and to do a lot of talking rather than taking action and completing a task.

“In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury,” says Proverbs 14:23.

Like those who go into debt, Proverbs tells us that those who chose the way of sloth will be the servants in society, not the rulers, and will be overcome by poverty rather than riches. Those who are diligent in their business, however, will be society’s influencers, “standing before kings” and increasing in profit and material wealth.

“He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich,” says Proverbs 10:4.

2. Pick a Partner with Good Work Ethic

One of the best financial investments a person can make is to choose a financially savvy spouse. Proverbs 31 famously paints a picture of this by describing a woman who does her husband good, not evil, by being an industrious worker who wisely considers a large purchase before investing her money, isn’t wasteful, and even runs and operates her own home business ventures.

A virtuous spouse, Proverbs says, is worth far more than rubies—but industry is part of virtue.

“She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands,” says Proverbs 12-13.

3. Think Long Term

For those who live paycheck to paycheck, thinking long term seems like the last thing to consider on the list of life worries. The good news is that preparing for the future doesn’t have to be difficult. According to Proverbs, it can be as simple as maintaining friendships on which we can fall back upon for help in times of trouble. Keeping our business and financial affairs in good order is another way to prepare for hard times.

Additionally, we should consider that our children and grandchildren are also likely to encounter hard financial times. Preparing a nest egg or inheritance for them ahead of time, Proverbs tells us, is the mark of a good man.

“A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous,” says Proverbs 13:22.

4. Avoid Get-Rich-Quick Schemes

It may sound exciting and easy to “make $90 an hour working from home,” but Proverbs suggests that being hasty to get rich leads to poverty and want.

“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty,” says Proverbs 21:5.

Those who faithfully do their work, however, will abound with blessings.

5. Pursue a Lifestyle of Integrity

Young people are often encouraged to sow their wild oats and enjoy life early on, but such riotous living may have negative financial consequences. Love of food, drink, and a free-wheeling lifestyle can lead an individual to spend extravagantly, eventually leading to poverty, Proverbs tells us.

Those who pursue righteous living, however, avoid extravagant lifestyles and practice honesty in their business dealings, not willing to take a bribe or lie in order to increase in wealth. Living a life of integrity promises great rewards, among which are “riches, and honour, and life,” Proverbs tells us.

Furthermore, in times of political turmoil and trouble, it is a righteous, upright life—not riches—that deliver an individual from death.

6. Avoid Loans

Borrowing money for school, cars, and homes has become the American way of life in recent years, even to the point that borrowing is now common even for basic living expenses. In fact, over 50 percent of Americans say they have more than $1,000 in credit card debt.

Proverbs warns against such debt, cautioning that those who borrow become servants to those who lend. This is likely why Proverbs also cautions against taking responsibility for another’s debt. Such an action may seem kind, but chances are that person will never be able to pay, leaving you stuck as the servant of debt in their place.

7. Be Generous

While Proverbs warns against taking responsibility for another’s debt, it does encourage us to be generous givers. Indeed, one might even say that Proverbs advances the idea of a giving principle: those who hoard and try to make sure they have enough to live on themselves will find that they’re grasping to make ends meet. But those who give freely to others, particularly the less fortunate, will find themselves overflowing with great blessings and plenty.

The Bottom Line

These seven financial principles are diverse and broad, but there is one component underlying each of them: wisdom. In the eighth chapter of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a woman calling to individuals to forsake their foolishness and seek her instead. Those who do so, she promises, will reap not only material rewards, but moral ones as well:

Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.

In essence, those of us who want to do well in financial matters will follow this “one simple trick”: seeking wisdom. [source]

Good financial advice from the Good Book.

Hamas Leader Using At Least 15 Hostages As Human Shields: Report

From The Daily Wire.com (May 2, 2024):

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas terrorist leader who was the mastermind behind the brutal October 7 attack on Israel, is hiding behind at least 15 hostages, according to American and Israeli officials, The New York Times reported.

As the U.S., Israel, and Egypt push Hamas to release the remaining hostages — which include as many as six Americans — Sinwar is negotiating behind a human shield made up of the very people Israeli forces are trying to rescue, officials said. The Times cited “people briefed on the negotiations” between Hamas and Israel who have blamed Sinwar for preventing a deal from being made that would release the hostages.

The outlet added that Sinwar is negotiating “from his hiding space deep in the tunnels below Gaza,” adding that his human shield of hostages “prevent[s] Israel from assassinating him.” Former U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff General Jack Keane also told Sky News that Sinwar could have as many as 20 hostages surrounding him and his family.

“My sources tell me that Sinwar, who is the number one leader in Gaza of the Hamas organization, has 15-20 hostages protecting him and his family,” Keane said.

U.S. officials made similar comments, in concurrence with Israeli intelligence, about Sinwar using hostages as human shields in February. Hamas terrorists kidnapped hundreds of civilians and soldiers from Israel during its October 7 attack. Israeli and U.S. officials said last month that it’s unclear how many hostages remain alive in Gaza.

Sinwar’s brutality has been evident over the course of Hamas’ war with Israel as he said in November that the October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people “was just a rehearsal.” Hamas terrorists have also said after being captured that the leaders of the terrorist organization, including Sinwar, hide under hospitals in Gaza.

Terrorist leaders have hidden behind non-combatants in the past, with one of the most recent examples dating back to 2011, when Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden attempted to use women as human shields during the U.S. raid on his compound in Pakistan before he was killed by special forces, according to the White House. Officials added that one of the women Bin Laden was hiding behind was also killed. [source]

The Hamas leader is an evil jinn worshipping coward. Hopefully, President Trump can help get the rest of the hostages (especially American hostages) released, because the current president is useless.

FBI Had 26 Confidential Human Sources At Jan. 6 Events In Washington, D.C.

From The Federalist.com (Dec. 12, 2024):

More than two dozen confidential human sources (CHS) were in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a new report the Justice Department inspector general released on Thursday.

Twenty-six CHSs were present in total, and the inspector general said that 11 of these “entered the restricted area around the Capitol.” At least one informant entered the Capitol amid the riot, and the FBI reimbursed that individual’s travel expenses.

While the Justice Department confirmed the FBI’s deployment of confidential sources at events related to Jan. 6, the inspector general denied “any CHS [was] directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6.”

The presence of FBI informants at the Capitol had long been dismissed by legacy media as another conspiracy of independent media. In December last year, CNN’s Abby Phillip tried to fact-check then-Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy at a network town hall when the candidate brought up the existence of FBI informants at events related to Jan. 6.

“The reality is we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in that building; we don’t know how many,” Ramaswamy said.

“I’m going to go ahead and interrupt you here,” Phillip interjected, “you’re saying that there were federal agents on January 6th. There is no evidence that there were federal agents in the crowd on January 6th.”

By that point, however, the presence of FBI informants and assets had been reported by The New York Times and Newsweek, the latter of which said the Justice Department deployed special commandos with “shoot-to-kill authority.”

Senior leadership at the FBI meanwhile repeatedly stonewalled House and Senate lawmakers’ questions related to the FBI’s use of informants on Jan. 6.

“How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked Jill Sanborn, the executive assistant director for the FBI’s National Security Branch, a year after the riot.

“I can’t go into the specifics of sources and methods,” she said.

More recently, FBI Director Christopher Wray, who announced on Wednesday that he will step down next month, refused to answer similar questions.

“I’m never going to be getting into when and where we have or have not, or have not used confidential human sources,” Wray said this summer.

In March, former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned after the riot, said he was also left in the dark about the presence of federal informants in the crowd. In an interview with the D.C. radio station WMAL, Sund called the lack of disclosure “concerning.” [source]

Of course they did. Being a setup and all. So, was Ray Epps a confidential human source or not? He says he's not. Still I wonder...

The Government Wants To Track Your Steak

From Reason.com (June 22, 2024):

The government has a long history of using tracking technology to ascertain our whereabouts, our habits, and even our preferences. From cellphones and cars to snow plows and garbage trucks, governments seemingly want to track anything that moves—or moos.

The USDA recently finalized a rule—set to go into effect in a few months—that will require all cattle and bison being moved across state lines to be tagged with radio-frequency identification (RFID) ear tags. RFID technology uses radio frequency waves to transmit and collect data by way of a system of electronic tags and scanners. The technology is best viewed as a type of electronic or remote barcode, in which scanners can read an RFID chip anywhere from a few meters away to around 100 meters away. In some ways analogous to a shorter-range GPS system, RFID can track geographic location and also operate as a system of data collection and storage.

In the context of livestock, a quick scan of an RFID tag can pull up information like a cow's date of birth, weight, vaccine records, ownership history, what farms it has been to, and what movements it has made. The USDA is justifying its RFID mandate on public health grounds, claiming that it can help trace and eradicate potential disease outbreaks among livestock, such as mad cow disease or hoof-and-mouth disease.

While plausible at first blush, it is far from clear that the mandate will accomplish its intended objective, and it is very clear that it will disproportionately hurt small and independent ranchers and cattle farmers.

For one thing, most ranchers already want to be able to identify their cattle and have used physical metal tags for years to do so. Electronic RFID tags are twice as expensive as traditional metal tags and also require an upfront investment in scanners and software, making the switch cost-prohibitive for many small farms. Farmers also complain that electronic tags are harder to identify visually from a distance, which matters during cattle drives and other large and quick-paced movements of livestock. Most farmers that use electronic tags therefore also still tag their animals with traditional physical tags, necessitating a double-investment in two types of tags.

There's also the issue of tag retention. "I've talked to many people who have used these RFID tags and their cows have lost 50 percent after five years," Ken Fox, a South Dakota cow farmer and chair of R-CALF USA's Animal Identification Committee, told Wisconsin State Farmer. "By year nine or ten only 14 percent of the tags were left; and our beef cows can be with us for 15 to 20 years, so that's a serious concern." Fox also notes that the RFID scanners often need to be replaced every four or five years.

Fox points out that not all livestock operations are created equal. For dairy farmers who keep their livestock penned up, frequent replacing of tags is more logistically feasible, if still expensive. But for cattle ranchers, tag replacement can be entirely impracticable. "That just doesn't work when we've got cattle on 10,000 or 30,000 acres of range land and we handle those cattle maybe twice a year," said Fox. "If they lose those tags, how are we going to know who those cattle are?" Amish farmers have also opposed electronic tagging on moral grounds given their opposition to technology.

Large cattle operations can afford to double-tag their livestock with physical and electronic tags, and in fact, many have already done so voluntarily—which means the mandate's burden will fall heaviest on small and medium-sized farms and ranches. The USDA rule also favors large cattle operations more directly, including allowing them to use so-called "group identification" for livestock herds of a certain size and continuity.

"The new rule also provides for large-scale cattle operations to use one ID per group of a certain size, instead of one ID per animal," writes Remington Kesten in a blog post for David's Pasture, a small-scale cattle operation in Missouri. "This means that the smaller farms will actually incur more cost per animal once the mandate takes effect, than the big players will."

Worse yet, this group identification actually undercuts the USDA's entire disease-traceability rationale for mandated electronic tagging. "This intentional loophole also reduces the traceability for large farms and exporters, contradicting the USDA's primary reason for mandating RFID Ear Tags in the first place," notes Kesten.

The rule also fails on its own terms. While supporters point to the 2003 mad cow disease outbreak in Washington state as an example of a situation where electronic tagging could have allowed for quicker identification of where the disease originated, it's worth noting that the government was still able to track the original diseased cow back to its birthplace farm in Canada within 13 days.

It's also worth recognizing that livestock disease outbreaks are exceedingly rare in the United States. An article in Lancaster Farming, which takes a generally favorable bent toward the USDA mandate, notes that hoof-and-mouth disease was last found in America in 1929. Farmers such as Fox have also highlighted the successful combatting of brucellosis in the United States, which was accomplished without electronic tagging.

If anything, it is large-scale commercial farms that are most responsible for disease outbreaks. "There is no data in over a decade showing that food borne illnesses have resulted from disease on small farms," writes Kesten. "All major disease outbreaks in recent years have occurred on large farms." In other words, small and independent ranchers are bearing the brunt of a new rule in the name of fixing a problem that they have nothing to do with.

Finally, the USDA rule creates significant data privacy concerns. RFID tags cannot distinguish between scanners—which are portable and easily carried in hand—so potentially anyone with a scanner could access the data contained in each tag. Ominously, the USDA rule opts to use the term electronic identification tags instead of the RFID acronym, although for now RFID tags are the only technology approved by the USDA for livestock tagging.

This flexible language means that USDA is explicitly leaving the door open to even more comprehensive tracking technology. This could come in the form of "active" RFID tags (instead of "passive" ones as currently contemplated) that have a greater range of readability or even GPS tracking of cows via satellites.

One small beacon of hope for American ranchers is that Congress appears to finally be waking up to the USDA's overreach. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) recently introduced legislation that would prohibit the USDA from implementing any rule that mandates electronic tagging technology for cattle and bison.

The USDA is attempting to find a solution for a problem that has already been largely addressed through current practices.

Fox puts it more colorfully: "Someone told me this story—NASA spent millions trying to develop a pen that could work in sub-zero temperatures and zero gravity. The Russians just used a pencil." [source]

Not sure if tracking cattle is good or not by the USDA. Individual ranchers doing it is one thing. I can understand that. But the federal government? The new USDA admin. might have to re-evaluate this regulation.

Biden Awards Second Highest Civilian Honor to Jan. 6 Panel Leaders

From Newsmax.com (Jan. 2):

President Joe Biden is bestowing the second highest civilian medal on Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson — the lawmakers who led the congressional investigation into the violent Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack — who President-elect Donald Trump has said should be jailed.

Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people in a ceremony Thursday at the White House, including Americans who fought for marriage equality, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and two of the president's longtime friends, former Sens. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

“President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said in a statement. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Biden last year honored people who were involved in defending the Capitol from the rioters, or who helped safeguard the will of American voters during the 2020 presidential election, when Trump tried and failed to overturn the results.

Cheney, who was a Republican representative from Wyoming, and Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, led the House committee that probed the insurrection. Cheney later said she would vote for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race even campaigned with her, raising Trump's ire. Biden has been considering whether to offer preemptive pardons to Cheney and others Trump has targeted.

Trump, who won the 2024 election and will take office Jan. 20, has said he would pardon people involved in the Jan. 6 attack after he takes office.

During an interview with NBC's “Meet the Press,” Trump said, “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps," claiming without evidence they “deleted and destroyed” testimony they collected.

“Honestly, they should go to jail,” he said.

Biden is also giving the award to attorney Mary Bonauto, who fought to legalize same-sex marriage, and Evan Wolfson, a leader of the marriage equality movement.

Other honorees include Frank Butler, who set new standards for using tourniquets on war injuries; Diane Carlson Evans, an Army nurse during the Vietnam War who founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation; and Eleanor Smeal, an activist who led women's rights protests in the 1970s and fought for equal pay.

He's also giving the award to photographer Bobby Sager, academics Thomas Vallely and Paula Wallace, and Frances Visco, the president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Other former lawmakers being honored include former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J.; former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, the first woman to represent Kansas; and former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who championed gun safety measures after her son and husband were shot to death.

Biden will honor four people posthumously: Joseph Galloway, a former war correspondent who wrote about the first major battle in Vietnam in the book “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young"; civil rights advocate and attorney Louis Lorenzo Redding; former Delaware state judge Collins Seitz; and Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was held with other Japanese Americans during World War II and challenged the detention.

The Presidential Citizens Medal, created by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is the country’s second highest civilian honor after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is awarded to those who “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” [source]

Of course, he would, the bastard.  He'll probably pardon them too.

Characteristics of American Tinkerpreneurs

1. Mechanical ability from an early age;
2. Stubborn practicality and dedication to making and selling useful things;
3. Willingness to expand their creative orbits as widely as possible to get the job done;
4. Relentless work ethic and insatiable commitment to continual self-improvement;
5. A deep and abiding respect for intellectual property, fair play, and the rule of law;
6. Strong faith and perseverance through failure and adversity; 
7. Reverence for America’s special role as a beacon of freedom and opportunity.

Source: Who Built That. Awe-Inspiring Stories of American Tinkerpreneurs (2015) by Michelle Malkin.

'Eco-friendly' paper straws actually contain toxic 'chemicals'

From Rebel News.com (Aug. 25, 2023):

It wasn't that long ago that plastic straws were replaced by paper ones in major fast-food chains and restaurants. But now paper straws are the ones to be considered 'toxic' according to scientists.

On August 24, 2023, a significant study published under the category of Food Additives & Contaminants, examined 39 brands of straws made from various materials such as paper, bamboo, glass, stainless steel and plastic. Each straw underwent two rounds of PFAS testing.

The term "per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances" (PFAS) refers to a large and complex group of synthetic chemicals that have been used in everyday items.

In this particular study, the straws showed PFAS in 69% of the cases. 18 different PFAS were found during testing.

These compounds were discovered in 90% of paper straws, 80% of bamboo straws, 75% of plastic straws, and 40% of glass straw brands tested positive as well.

No traces of PFAS were found in stainless steel straws.

According to the study:

Most PFAS barely break down and are both accumulative and potentially toxic to humans, animals, and the environment (EEA Citation2022).

Intake through food and drinking water are the main routes of general human exposure to PFAS. In addition, many food packaging materials (Food Contact Materials, FCMs) and reusable plastic bags used in the food industry can contain PFAS (Sznajder-Katarzyńska et al. Citation2019; EEA Citation2022).

Researchers say that the high concentration of PFAS in the straws show that they were used as a waterproof coating.

Science Daily said:

The PFAS concentrations were low and, bearing in mind that most people tend to only use straws occasionally, pose a limited risk to human health. However, PFAS can remain in the body for many years and concentrations can build up over time.

This raises the question if plastic straws will make a comeback in certain food places in the future, because paper straws aren't as 'eco-friendly' as we thought. [source]

The paper straws don’t work as well plastic straws and they are toxic too people. Do the enviro-extremists care? No, as long as the straws aren’t toxic to the environment in general.