Really Right – Page 118 – Religion, Politics, and Culture: Explained and Defined

A Tale of Two Baptists

In the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, two very different reactions were reported by Baptists groups.

Chick-fil-A in Orlando was open the following day-a Sunday-to provide chicken and lemonade to blood donors wishing to help wounded victims. Just because Chick-fil-A is supportive of traditional marriage does not mean that they turn a blind eye to their community in a time of extra ordinary need.
Chick-fil-A responds to Orlando massacre

Meanwhile, here in northern California, KCRA-TV was featuring a local pastor that was preaching a different message on the very same Sunday. Here are parts of their story.

During a portion of his teaching, Pastor Roger Jimenez, of Verity Baptist Church on Northgate Boulevard, was talking about sodomites, saying that it is “unnatural to want to be with some of the same sex.”

“People say, ‘Well, aren’t you sad that 50 sodomites died?’ Here’s the problem with that, it’s like the equivalent of asking me, ‘Well, aren’t you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?’” Jimenez said. “No, I think that’s great. I think that helps society. I think that Orlando, Florida is a little safer tonight.”

“The point that I was making is if God puts the death penalty on it, God says they deserve to die, and they die, this is not something that we, as Christians, need to be mourning,” Jimenez said. “In the same way that this gunman who went in there and killed all these people, he violated Scripture. God says that he deserves to die for taking their lives. We don’t need to be mourning his death either.”

Jimenez went on to say that the main focus of his sermon was about how the government and media is going to use this even to push their agenda, which is to take away gun rights and limit freedom of speech.

KCRA: Pastor upset more didn’t die

Pastor Jimenez is mixing Scripture with current events and some of his own ideas and the whole combination is falling short. I would like to try to separate some of the threads in this story into components that can be more easily analyzed.

I’m going to look at the subject of this news story thru a worldview influenced by a Reformed point of view. As such, let’s begin with the first point of Calvinism, Total Depravity.

The short version of Total Depravity is that men are spiritually dead. We are all sinners separated from God.

Some sins; however, are condemned in both Testaments; among these are murder and homosexuality. The Bible is clear that murders and homosexuals will not go to heaven or inherit the kingdom of God.

One word used in the New Testament that includes homosexuality is Pornia which is defined as: adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
—Strong’s Concordance, Word 4202

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Roman1:25-32

That all sinners are separated from God is a given, but clearly some sins are the result of the rebellion of a people under God’s judgment. This was true when Paul wrote it back in the days of ancient Rome and is again true of the West.

It is true that homosexuality is a sin that is worthy of death under the Old Testament system established by Moses. However, there is no warrant for belief that a vigilante that goes around killing notorious sinners is allowed by Scripture. A sinner killing other sinners is still a sin and not something worthy of celebrating.

Sorry but The Punisher and Death Wish are both entertainment and not meant as guides on social reform for willing citizens.

Only government is allowed to use the sword to punish evil doers. Yes self-defense is also biblical but anyone that says playing judge, jury, and executioner is wonderful is not speaking in accord with Scripture.

Pastor Jimenez somehow thinks two wrongs make a right action. On this point I dissent.

I think that Chick-fil-A giving folks food and drink is a much more biblical approach. Jesus said it is ok to do good on the Sabbath.

“Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?”
—Luke 6:9

As I dug deeper into Verity Baptist Church, I found enough to do a blog on their group but I will let that wait for another day. I would like to close on a quotation from their website so you can get a flavor of what Pastor Jimenez has to say about the “rainbow people”.

We believe that sodomy (homosexuality) is a sin and an abomination before God which God punishes with the death penalty. No sodomite (homosexual will be allowed to attend or join Verity Baptist Church.
Verity Baptist Church-what we believe

1984: Joe Miller Agrees

More proof I’m ReallyRight as today Joe Miller publishes 5 Ways Orwell’s 1984 Has Come True Since Its Publication 68 Years Ago.

It’s debatable whether George Orwell surmised the ominous threat of totalitarianism that inspired him to pen the dystopic vision, 1984, would extend worldwide and resurface nearly seven decades after its publication. But the novel’s apt description of a world on end have undoubtedly come to pass.

Innumerable examples evidence how 1984 would better be described as a dark portent than a fascinating read, but one thing — the political language dubbed Newspeak, employed by the ruling government, Ingsoc — seems to have served as an instruction manual for the American empire. —Claire Bernish
Link: 5 Ways Orwell’s 1984 has come true

1984: Orwell’s Dystopia has Arrived

For those that haven’t read this book in a while, here is a portion of the plot synopsis from Wikipedia. I have added emphasis to a portion; you will learn why in a moment.

The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party, who works for the Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue in Newspeak), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to rewrite past newspaper articles, so that the historical record always supports the party line. The instructions that the workers receive specify the corrections as fixing misquotations and never as what they really are: forgeries and falsifications. A large part of the ministry also actively destroys all documents that have been edited and do not contain the revisions; in this way, no proof exists that the government is lying.
Wikipedia 1984

In his novel 1984, Orwell envisioned that it would be an all present and all powerful government that would be running the Ministry of Truth ; however; in modern America, we prefer to let large corporations do the unpleasant lifting for government. This allows something Orwell overlooked in his dystopian world, plausible deniability.

“Plausible deniability is the ability for persons to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others because of a lack of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions.”
Link: Definition of Plausible Deniability

The irony that this particular book—1984—is the victim of document destruction is all the more poignant.

The perpetrator of this action happens to be Amazon.com

Amazon Secretly Removes “1984” From the Kindle
Thousands of people last week discovered that Amazon had quietly removed electronic copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from their Kindle e-book readers. In the process, Amazon revealed how easy censorship will be in the Kindle age.

In this case, the mass e-book removals were motivated by copyright . A company called MobileReference, who did not own the copyrights to the books 1984 and Animal Farm, uploaded both books to the Kindle store and started selling them. When the rights owner heard about this, they contacted Amazon and asked that the e-books be removed. And Amazon decided to erase them not just from the store, but from all the Kindles where they’d been downloaded. Amazon operators used the Kindle wireless network, called WhisperNet, to quietly delete the books from people’s devices and refund them the money they’d paid.

An uproar followed, with outraged customers pointing out the irony that Amazon was deleting copies of a novel about a fascist media state that constantly alters history by changing digital records of what has happened. Amazon’s action flies in the face of what people expect when they purchase a book. Under the “right of first sale” in the U.S., people can do whatever they like with a book after purchasing it, including giving it to a friend or reselling it. There is no option for a bookseller to take that book back once it’s sold.
Joe Miller: Amazon Secretly Removes 1984

Gizmodo’s original story can be found here

This action by Amazon, which has happened before as the article in Gizmodo points out, is one of the reasons that I don’t purchase eBooks. It is also a reason I have grown adverse to buying downloadable music if I can get a physical CD instead.

The fine print in the Licensing Agreements is that you don’t really own the eCopy, the seller does. You just paid for permission to use it. Furthermore, after you give them money, they have the right to unilaterally change to the Terms of Use Agreement.

Ultimately, this is also true of your Windows or Apple Operating System. In fact, most of this stuff actually has an expiration date buried in the software —although it us usually two or three decades in the future.

This is what I dislike about anything proprietary. With the flick of a switch, someone can delete your entire library of eBooks, adobe PDF docs or anything else. Worse yet, they can secretly edit these same works and you would never know. As in 1984, there is no paper trail to follow because there is no paper.

Also, storing things on other people’s servers is problematic. It is common knowledge that Google reads everything you send or receive via Gmail or store on their servers.

Even without this ability, look what things have been purged from our culture.

I dare you to find a copy of Disney’s Song of the South. The plot is black folks on a plantation help to keep a white family together. Yeah, the blacks are the heroes in the movie but Disney has buried it.

Leslie Neilson did a live action Mr. Magoo movie in 1997 but again you can hardly find it.

If things run afoul of Political Correctness they get purged from popular culture.

Any references to Indians or Christians in our country are experiencing the same purge: Braves, Redskins, Warriors, Crusaders, etc. How did Star n’ Bars become a symbol of racism?

If you recall, following 9/11, Hollywood briefly wanted to digitally remove the Twin Towers from movies previously filmed in New York. Yeah, really! They wanted to purge any images that the Towers ever existed instead of getting mad at the folks that blew them up. As far as I know, the only Hollywood movie to purposely delete the Twin Towers was the first Spiderman movie. If you can find the first theatrical preview for the movie, it had a helicopter suspended between the Towers in a large web. Based on the preview, the men in it had just committed a bank robbery. Also, the final battle at the end of the movie was scrapped and re-shot because it had footage of the Towers.

In the computer age, with the flick of a switch, Amazon can delete a book from your library or update it to remove offensive content. Apple can drop music from your iTunes library; Netflix can edit offensive religious material from a movie. Need I go on?

Then there is social media. Express support for traditional marriage or call homosexuality a sin and you might have your account banned from Facebook. (I Know people this has happen too.)

Support traditional family values and the day is near when you will be denied government employment and student loans.

Doubt global warming and some politicians in California want you to be subject to criminal sanctions. (Yes this is a real bill in the state legislature.)

The brave new world is here. Failure of citizens to conform in thought and deed is slowly being criminalized. Freedom, Truth, Patriotism, and Faith are the enemies of the Liberal State.

Jesus the Only Way to God Under Attack Yet Again

I have several articles in various stages of being written for the blog but this story just seems to be the most important in its own way.

Once again, it touches on Calvin’s Five Points which is really ironic considering it’s about a Baptist church. Just for context please remember that Portland Oregon is regarded as the most atheist city in America. The website—World Net Daily—where I found this article is also based in Oregon.

The sign below hinges on a key claim of Jesus.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:6

This doctrine is under constant attack by our culture (and many so-called Christians). It is nice to see someone standing for the truth of Scripture instead of itching the ears of sinful men.

“I’m not politically correct. I’ve never been politically correct, but I think I’m biblically correct, and that’s what matters to me”— Rev. Michael Harrington
Tiny Church in Holy War with Islam

The Compassion of the Wicked is Cruelty

Did you marvel when you saw these news stories last week?

U.S. President Barack Obama has cited the biblical Golden Rule to defend the controversial “federal guidance” he issued instructing all public schools to allow transgender students to use the restrooms of the opposite biological sex or risk losing federal funding.
Obama Cites Golden Rule to allow boys into girl’s bathrooms

Rescuers are scouring bear-infested woods in northern Japan for a little boy who was abandoned by his parents as punishment.
Japanese boy left in woods as punishment

• Ever wonder how Liberals can claim that abortion is a good moral choice?

• Ever wonder why Peter Singer can be hailed as a champion of ethics when he advocates animal rights, abortion, euthanasia, and the killing for children under the age of two that are deemed defective?

• In short, have you ever wondered about a world where wrong is right, up is down, perverted is normal, and criminals are virtuous?

We here at ReallyRight.com are here to help. The answer has probably been in your hands all along, it’s just that no one pointed this out to you. Let us introduce you to Proverbs 12:10.

I’m sure this verse has been one that had you read it, you would just sail bye it, but let’s take a closer look. In particular, the second part of Proverbs 12:10 has not been rendered correctly into English in many popular translations.

New King James
A righteous man regards the life of his animal, But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

King James Version
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

American Standard Version
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

The following versions are closer to the mark:

New American Standard Version
A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.

God’s Word Translation
A righteous person cares [even] about the life of his animals, but the compassion of wicked people is [nothing but] cruelty.

In short, the second part of Proverbs 12:10 should be rendered, “The compassion of the wicked is cruelty.”

I have to give credit for this to David Chilton, although I don’t know if he ever put it in writing anywhere.

Here are some commentaries that I felt helped to understand the passage.

But the tender mercies; literally, the bowels, regarded as the seat of feeling. The wicked cannot be supposed to have “tender mercies;” hence it is best to take the word in the sense of “feelings,” “affections.” What should be mercy and love are in an evil man only hard-heartedness and cruelty.
Pulpit Commentary on Proverbs 12

In 10b most interpreters find an oxymoron: the compassion of the godless is compassionless, the direct opposite of compassion; i.e., he possesses either altogether no compassion, or he shows such as in its principle, its expression, and in its effects is the opposite of what it ought to be (Fl.). Bertheau believes that in the sing. of the predicate אכזרי he is justified in translating: the compassion of the wicked is a tyranny. And as one may speak of a loveless love, i.e., of a love which in its principle is nothing else than selfishness, so also of a compassionless compassion, such as consists only in gesture and speech without truth of feeling and of active results. But how such a compassionless compassion toward the cattle, and one which is really cruel, is possible, it may be difficult to show. Hitzig’s conjecture, רחמי, sprang from this thought: the most merciful among sinners are cruel – the sinner is as such not רחוּם. The lxx is right in the rendering, τὰ δὲ σπλάγχνα τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἀνελεήμονα. The noun רחמים means here not compassion, but, as in Genesis 43:30 (lxx ἔντερα or ἔγκατα) and 1 Kings 3:26 (lxx μήτρα), has the meaning the bowels (properly tender parts, cf. Arab. rakhuma, to be soft, tender, with rḥm), and thus the interior of the body, in which deep emotions, and especially strong sympathy, are wont to be reflected (cf. Hosea 10:8). The singular of the predicate אכזרי arises here from the unity of the subject-conception: the inwards, as Jeremiah 50:12, from the reference of the expression to each individual of the many. Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary on Proverbs 12

This rendering of Proverbs 12:10 also happens to fit into Calvinism’s idea of Total Depravity. (For a detailed discussion you can refer to site such as this: Five Points of Calvinism Chapter 1)

So next time you want to quote Romans chapter one to someone but they won’t sit still long enough to let you, just remember this passage. Solomon distilled much into one succinct phrase, “The compassion of the wicked is cruelty”. Almost a thousand years later, Paul built upon this in his letter to the Romans.

So in our world of soundbites and bumper stickers, add this to your mental toolbox; then next time you see the wicked acting according to their nature, you’ll understand that the compassion of the wicked is cruelty.

Bern the Witch

Sorry, but I can’t help cheering for Bernie Sanders in his battle with Hillary Clinton. Bernie has such an uphill struggle against the Clinton Machine that he should have been out of this a long time ago. However, Mrs. Clinton is such a horrible and unqualified candidate that even her Party doesn’t like her.

Without the Super Delegates that pledged to her a year ago she would be filling out a resume or retiring to enjoy her life with Bill. (Like that will be actually happen.) I disagree with Bernie’s policies but I believe that he is a real alternative to the former New York Senator.

At least Bernie has blazed his own trail for much of his political career. He is the longest serving independent and didn’t become a Democrat until a year ago. He has more political experience than Bill and Hillary put together.

What are Hillary’s accomplishments?
• She slept with the President
• She let people die in Benghazi
• She had an unsecure server in her house that was hacked on several occasions and exposed national security secrets

The deck is stacked against Bernie but you’ve got to admire him. It’s a David and Goliath match that has been fun to watch. If June 7th is kind to him, just maybe the Dems will get their wish for a disputed convention. It worked so well for them in 1972.

SEIU Going for 22% Pay Increase

Taxpayers and business owners of California, lest you thought that our beloved Legislature was done with you, think again. The other shoe is about to drop on your fiscal head.

While you are toiling away at your jobs with the shadow of a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage hanging over your head, standby. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has big plans for you. They are advocating an across the board 22 percent raise for all state workers that they represent. Of this, two percent of this increase will go towards retirement.

SEIU Flyer

Still time to go to Texas or face the wrath of these economically illiterate elites running this crazy state.

Pregnancy Scare on Airplane

When speaking about popular culture, I have heard it claimed that movies with historical settings often show you more about modern culture than they do what really happened in the past. Movies like Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot ” and Russell Crowe’s “Noah ” come to mind. I’m sure that my readers can name several other flicks that also fall into this category.

It is not often that much of pop-culture can be distilled to one single event or news story but I think I found one that covers many bases at one time.

I wish to present this gem that was offered by Microsoft Network (MSN) earlier today.

Kim Kardashian Has Pregnancy Scare on an Airplane
Article: Kim Kardashian has pregnancy scare on an airplane

Many questions and issues are raised by this one celebrity puff piece.

What is a pregnancy scare? And how does one experience a “pregnancy scare” on an airplane.

Normally I would ignore such an article but look at the context this week.

• The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is having a systematic breakdown in commercial airports all over the United States. Lines are three hours long in many areas just so passengers can get thru the security checkpoints.

• Two days ago a terrorist attack caused the crash of a flight from Paris to Cairo, Egypt. Even having three air marshals on the flight did nothing to prevent this attack.

• Now we have a genuine “pop tart” in the news because of something that happened on a plane.

Air travel is definitely in the news this week.

So how does a big time celebrity have a “pregnancy scare” on an airplane?
Did some TSA guy pull her aside for a cavity search and then act like Bill Clinton?
Did she behave stupidly and try to get into the mythical “mile high club” only to later regret it?

As the article points-out, Kardashian is married and a mother of two children. So what does pregnancy have to do with a plane flight? Doesn’t the phrase “pregnancy scare” seem like a backhanded way of portraying pregnancy as a bad thing? It seems like the language someone who identifies themselves as “pro-abortion” would use.

So the set-up is this: sex symbol woman that has virtually every crevasse of her body all over the Internet, seems worried about the consequences of sex catching up with her behavior, and somehow this all involves an airplane too. What a strange mixture of issues is converging on this one article.

As it turns out, Kardashian decided to take a pregnancy test in the midst of her flight and broadcast the results live on the Internet to all of her followers.

Kim Kardashian had a small pregnancy scare on Thursday, so she did what anyone would in that situation: She took a pregnancy test on an airplane and broadcast it to the world via Snapchat.

“I’m legit in the airplane bathroom about to take a pregnancy test because I’m having a little bit of a scare,” Kim announced in her first Snapchat video.

I’m sorry but why would someone ever share this on the Internet? Is Kim on the fetish channel?

Think about it; she is live streaming her streaming of pee to test for female hormones and then look for a plus or minus.

The letters T.M.I. come to mind. Too Much Information.

Kim do the rest of us a favor and keep your privates parts private and your martial behavior in your bedchamber.

Whoever wrote this story claiming that Kardashian “did what anyone would in that situation” is clearly living in a different world that I am.

Like I said at the beginning, this story touches on lots of aspects of pop-culture. It is a sad commentary on societal decay. As the Litany would say, from this too good Lord deliver us.

Minors and Microsoft Band 2

My son is an avid reader and as an incentive to push him, we offered him some cash if he would get a certain point value by the end of the school year. (Each book he reads at school has a point system based on content and grade level.)

Earlier this month, he achieved the goal set for him and wanted to use his money to buy a Microsoft Band 2. About a week ago, the Band arrived from Amazon. It was on sale again for $175.

I had him charge it while I was at work and when I got home, I told him that I would connect it with his Lumia 640.

What should have been a five minute procedure ended up taking 3 ½ hours.

First, the Band is designed to sync with the Microsoft Health application. Unlike Apple products, the Microsoft Band works on Windows, Android, and Apple phones. What I learned is that on a Windows phone, there is no ability to log off of the Microsoft Health app. It is defaulted to use the user signed into the phone. Well the Lumia 640 was my old phone. I uninstalled the app and then reinstalled, hoping to get a log-in prompt. This failed.

I deleted my email accounts, entered my son’s email account, and tried again. The Microsoft health app then tried to log into my son’s account.

I need to give you a bit of background to understand what happened next. My son is listed as my son on my Microsoft Live account. As such, I have some ability to monitor his Internet activity and control things like purchases that he makes on the phone. By having his age listed, I can also control what he does on the XBOX.

When the app tried to log on to my son’s Microsoft account, it gave him an error stating that he was too young to use the Band and locked him out of the app. We deleted the app and reinstalled. The app jumped to this same blocked message.

I ended up wiping the phone completely and starting over. After I tried to run the Microsoft Health app, it once again locked him out due to his age. Please remember that without the ability for him to connect to this application, the Band is a $175 brick.

I researched this on the Internet and found that the Microsoft Health app will only allow connections with people 18 and older. Nowhere is this documented on Microsoft’s sales information on the Band. I then researched how to change his age on the youth account. Once I changed his age to 21 in my Live account, I was told by the website that this made him an adult and he could no longer be under my supervision. Reluctantly, I agreed to this.

Then we tried the MS Health app again. We were still locked-out. So once again I had to wipe the phone and start over. This time when the Microsoft app was installed, it reluctantly allowed him to connect. My problem is that the version of Windows 10 on the phone is a beta copy and not an approved production release. By wiping my account, I’m sure I broke the link to get further updates on the phone.

I think it is stupid that Microsoft targets youth to buy their Band and then won’t let them use it because they are youth. Thus we need to lie to MS about the age of our children to use their products.

What kind of society are we living in? We aren’t supposed to care which bathroom our children use or if they get an abortion but they have to be over 18 to buy a glorified watch?

Clearly there are lawyers involved in this somehow. You’d think Microsoft would get their highly paid lobbyists to fix any issues that might prevent youth from using their products. I’m sure Fitbit has no such concerns about their products. In fact I doubt many people in Fitbit’s ads are over 18.

The bottom line is when you get your kids a Microsoft Band 2 be sure and lie about their age before trying to connect it to the Internet. Great product, but lying is not good behavior to model for your kids.

Review: Golden 1 Forces Quicken Use

A week ago, my financial institution killed my ability to use Microsoft Money. Up to this point, I’ve been happy with Golden 1 Credit Union but this move has given me pause to consider moving my finances to another business.

Three reasons why I’m not happy:
• Golden 1 lied
• Quicken is inferior
• Privacy and Security concerns

Golden 1 Bad IT Guys
Golden 1 lied to their customers when they claimed that their software upgrade just made their site more secure and gave customers more options. They never stated that they would be discontinuing support for Money ahead of the upgrade. Not in emails to customers nor on their website. This is lousy customer service. In fact, they state just the opposite.

Does everything work the same as before the upgrade?
We worked hard to make sure that all functionality within Online and Mobile Banking remains the same.
https://www.golden1.com/OnlineServices/NewLook

The above statement has clearly been proven false.

My wife and I wrote to Golden 1 about this and got the following response. In effect, we were told to go pound sand.

Thank you for your email. Microsoft Money was discontinued in 2009, therefore it is not compatible with our website. Although you may have been able to use the service after it was discontinued, technical support is no longer offered. Golden 1 supports Quicken for Windows 2014 and 2015, Quicken for Mac 2007 and Essentials, as well as Buxfer and Mint.

When Golden 1 upgraded their website, the Quicken file format changed from QIF to QFX. I think they hosed some Quicken users as well.

Again, money was compatible with their website before the upgrade.

Quicken Inferior by Design
You may ask why I’m so upset? Quicken has always been an inferior product to Money.

Here are some samples of the differences:

Transaction entry screens

Quicken entry screen

Money gives you a way bigger area to enter a transaction on the same screen as your account register. In Quicken you have to resort to pop-up windows to find something comparable. This is a clunky design that is not user friendly.

Money lets you hide items that are reconciled without affecting the bank balance. This allows you to limit your day-to-day interaction to recent items. Historical data is one mouse click away. If you try this in Quicken it will literally change the numbers that it shows for your bank account. This is stupid behavior.

I do accounting for a living. My bank balance is a record of withdrawals and deposits and that is the only things that should change it. If I want to slice and dice my financial information, I can run a report. Reporting is a separate tab in both programs.

In Money my ending balance is my ending balance and the check register stays the same (reconciled items are older and to see them you just scroll up).

In Quicken, this is a convoluted question. If you select to show only unreconciled items instead of all transactions then the running balance in the account goes into crazy land.

Here are screenshots for the same transactions in Quicken toggling between All Transactions and Unreconciled Transactions. In money the running balance would not change.

The download and matching of transactions in Quicken also seems inferior to Money. Matching transactions in Money was intuitive but Quicken requires much more clicking to do the same task.

The other gripe I have is the invasiveness of Intuit. When I install Money, I click on setup.exe and install the program and go. If I have a Money file, I just double click on it and I’m off to the races but Intuit is different and not in a good way.

When I installed Quicken, it offered to import my Money file. Once I did that, I was forced to go to a registration screen and either create a new Intuit account or login and tie-in my Quicken account to my Turbo Tax account. Without your financial data being tied to Intuit via the Internet you cannot run the program.

Quicken also gladly offers to keep a copy of all your banking data on their website. As invasive as their program is, I wonder if they are anyway.

The Quicken program does not have a product key required for installation, just the requirement that you have an Intuit account. Without a product key, Quicken can be installed on as many devices as you wish but the program needs an Intuit account in order to run.

Quicken Bugs
I did experience two bugs in the program while messing with all this nonsense.

First, on my Windows 10 desktop, Quicken was unable to connect to the Internet. After messing around for longer than I should have, I finally found the “Mondo Patch” for Quicken 2016.
Link to Mondo Patch
Once installed, I was able to get beyond the registration screen.

I later installed Quicken on my wife’s Lenovo laptop and did not experience this issue. After waiting about 10 minutes, the program finally patched itself before completing setup.

A second bug that I experienced was the mess Quicken made of my Money file. Quicken duplicated about twelve transactions in my check register and overstated my bank balance in excess of $4,000. Quicken created duplicates of items that had been reconciled in the previous month plus some other nonsense. I really hated going into my check register and deleting transactions but that’s what it took.

Not a good first impression!

Price
Before I get to my next section I did want to mention price.
Microsoft Money Sunset is a free download Money Download is here

Of course I couldn’t just get the basic version of Quicken, I needed Quicken Deluxe to import Money files. The program sells at Fry’s and Best Buy for $75. Thankfully, it sells at Sam’s Club for $55.

I wish back in the day that Microsoft had purchased Intuit but the Clinton Administration nixed the deal.

The Microsoft Corporation, in the software industry’s largest acquisition ever, agreed today to acquire Intuit Inc., the producer of the leading personal finance program, Quicken, in a stock swap valued at about $1.5 billion.
Microsoft to buy Intuit

Privacy
I have problems with all my personal information being retained by Intuit. Over the years my concern has grown. I have come to understand that they are retaining large amounts of data on users of their products. This information is a lot of knowledge and corporate power that they could wield. Intuit is maintaining files on millions of people.

Writing about Mint—another Intuit company—and online privacy concerns I found this:

Finally, besides security issues, there are also privacy issues associated with using such sites. The sites are sitting on financial behavior information that would be extremely valuable in aggregate to marketers and others if they chose to sell it, an option Mr. Patzer of Mint.com has spoken about in the past.

Plus, even if a site promises now not to sell aggregate data about customers, it could change the agreement at any time and go ahead and sell the data. In addition, if such sites go bankrupt, even if they currently don’t sell data, trustees may decide to sell it to maximize the value of the assets.
Should you trust Mint?

I found this in the Quicken privacy policy.

If Quicken or its assets are acquired by another company, or in the event of a merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization, or liquidation, we may transfer, sell, or assign to third parties, information concerning your relationship with us, including, without limitation, personal information that you provide and other information concerning your relationship with us.
Quicken Privacy Policy