Dave Bauscher Hero or Heretic

Recently, I ran across a website created by Rev. Dave Bauscher. The link was via an article or thinly veiled advertisement—it’s hard to tell which sometimes—on World Net Daily. Bauscher claims on http://aramaicnt.com/ that much of the New Testament was first written in Aramaic and then translated into Greek. He argues that this is especially true of the Gospels since it is unlikely that fishermen would know the intricacies of Greek when it would be a second language to them.

Some of his claims seem to be plausible; however, if true, they would throw out the conventional wisdom of most of Christendom.  Throughout Church history, Greek has always been understood to be the original language of all the New Testament. This belief can be traced to the second century and Greek manuscripts go back further than that. Bauscher believes his ideas so much that he has created an Aramaic/English translation of the New Testament and portions of the Old.

Whether Bauscher is correct in his ideas concerning Aramaic, it is his theology that causes me to raise the red flag. On the website—which lacks a Home button—there is a tab titled Research. Two articles gave me pause “Beginning and The End” and “Trinity in the Tanak”.

In “Trinity in the Tanek”, Bauscher describes an incident when God appeared to Abraham in Genesis chapter 18. In discussing this “Theophany” in the Old Testament, Bauscher seems to depart from Orthodox Christianity.

Notice first the address of Abraham starts with The Name, “Jehovah”. Abraham recognizes that Jehovah has come to him in flesh and utters The Most Holy Name. Three plural words designate Jehovah in verse 2: “Three”, “Men” & “Them”. Abraham also uses two second person singular pronouns, which I have rendered in Elizabethan English: “thy”, found twice in verse three. The verb, … ‘avar’- “pass away” is singular. These three singular predicates of Jehovah declare the unity and uniqueness of Jehovah as One indivisible Godhead which acts and lives as One, nor is there another Elohim, our Creator and Salvation. Verse three reveals Jehovah as Three Men in One Godhead.
Page 7 (emphasis in original)

The phrase “Three Men in One Godhead” sounded familiar to me. My first thought was “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.” Doctrines and Covenants 130:22.

Bauscher seems to have left the Christian reservation and is heading toward Mormonism or something embracing three gods.

Later in the article Bauscher writes:

The scripture is plain here and speaks for itself. God is Three Persons united in Name, nature, purpose, mind, word and action. Each of The Three Persons bears the same Name and is Divine and equally worthy of worship. It is clear that the Massoretes changed YHWH to Adonai four times in chapter 18 and once in chapter 19:18 & in over 100 other places, in an attempt to eradicate scriptural testimony to The Trinity in the Christian era. At least their commitment to preserving the integrity of scripture compelled them to keep records of every change they made to the text, in the margins of certain Hebrew Bible manuscripts.

He leaves me wondering, what is his view of the Trinity and God being Three Persons?

In his article, “Beginning and The End”, he again departs from classic Christianity. In one stroke of the pen, he overturns all the big theological ideas of the New Testament including Justification, Sanctification, and the purpose of the Crucifixion. Is he back to three gods, Modalism or something else?

It is as if all of God, eternity, heaven, earth, time and space were focused at once in one focal point on the Christ of the cross, where all fullness dwelt- and died! Every death deserves to be mourned, even the death of a sparrow; here is the death of all things living, yea, the death of the full Godhead and all Heaven-angels and saints, cherubim, seraphim, archangel and holy innocents. Here was the end of all things with the death of Him Who is the End of all things; the Life and Light of the world was going out, and of necessity, with Him Who was their LIFE and Heart, The Spirit of Holiness and The Father of our Lord also died!

Surely the scripture says Christ died. Surely it says He is God; therefore He Who is God died. “I and My Father are One”, said He. If the Son died, then The Oneness was destroyed (“Jehovah thy God, Jehovah is One” Deut. 6:4). Then was the Godhead ended in Christ’s death.

Another way of verifying this most radical truth is from the vantage of the love of God. According to Jesus, there is no greater love than this: That a man lay down His life for his friend.

If God The Father never gave His life, then every man who has done so has greater love than God The Father!

Can this doctrine of God standing and requiring the death of His only Son stand? I say, “Never!” John 3:16 gives one side of the picture of God’s love; 1 John 3:16 gives the other: “In this we see the love of God: He laid down His Life for us…”

You see, God went with Jesus. He said, “I am never alone; My Father is in Me, and I in Him.” We know God never left His Son. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto His Majesty.” And what is His majesty, if not this Love of God that surpasses knowledge? If He has all power, knowledge, dominion and Worship and has not love, He is nothing! (See 1 Cor. 13)

Our Lord cried out on the cross:”My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me”? Where was His Father? Where was the answer? What did the Father say?

There was no answer. How could a loving Father not answer His beloved Son? It cannot be so. “Forsaken me”- How could a loving Father Who is by nature and from eternity One and inseparable from His eternal Only Begotten and beloved Son, how could He forsake Him? It were impossible for Him to do so, by nature and by love. So what could possibly wrench such a cry from the lips of Him Who spoke Life and Light, Joy, Hope, Love and Glory into the cosmos? He Whose mighty word created and upholds all worlds- He roared from Jerusalem to the ends of time and space and into the infinite reaches of The eternal Heaven of heavens; it shook the pillars of existence; whatever existed heard that cry from Him Who said ,”If these should hold their peace, the very rocks would cry out.”

All who heard, if any could hear that and live, must have wondered as do I: How can this One pray so with such despair and not receive answer? Why and how could God forsake Him, of all persons? He could not. There is only one conclusion to draw. Draw it!

God was dead! The Son also was not. The Spirit had breathed His last breath. The prophecies of the end had all come upon us. Isaiah and Amos had written of this dark consummation and despair that would crawl over the whole world like black death; the earth would quake to its foundations; the sun would darken at noon; all joy would die; Jehovah would roar out of Jerusalem; the earth and Heaven would dissolve and fall apart.

All Death deserves mourning, yet is it nothing to you that pass by? Our God, The Triune Glory and Desire of all nations is dead! Bow down and mourn and weep, for the Light of all is gone out!
Pages 2 & 3 (emphasis added)

Walter Martin wrote, “The Doctrine of the Trinity teaches that within the unity of the one Godhead there are three separate persons who are coequal in power, nature, and eternity.”  Instead Bauscher seems to have a confused version of Modalism in mind.

Modalism, also called Sabellianism, is the unorthodox belief that God is one person who has revealed himself in three forms or modes in contrast to the Trinitarian doctrine where God is one being eternally existing in three persons. According to Modalism, during the incarnation, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode. Thus, God does not exist as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time. Rather, He is one person and has merely manifested himself in these three modes at various times. Modalism thus denies the basic distinctiveness and coexistence of the three persons of the Trinity.
http://www.theopedia.com/Modalism

In Christian theology, Jesus was the God/Man and died in our place to satisfy the justice of God the Father. Bauscher has created some heretical alternate reality where this transaction never took place.

Below is an example of the Trinity in the Scriptures. Note that each Person of the Godhead is acting in the Resurrection of Christ. Also, nowhere is there any indication that God the Father or God the Holy Spirit died on the cross with Jesus. The writer of Hebrews clearly did not believe this when he described Jesus and both Sacrifice and High Priest. Paul called Jesus the propitiation for our sins. This is never stated of either the Father or Spirit.

The Resurrection of Christ. A final instance of Trinitarian emphasis is that of the resurrection of our Lord. In John 2 Christ declared to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (v. 19). John hastens to tell us that Jesus was speaking of the resurrection of His earthly body (v. 21). Other Scriptures, however, state that Christ was raised by the agency of the Holy Spirit (e.g., Rom. 8:11). And Peter explicitly states that the Father raised the Son (Acts 3:26). So, again, God’s Word affirms the triune nature of God. We may not fully understand the great truth of the Trinity. However, we can see the rays of light which emanate from God’s Word and which teach us that, in a mysterious sense beyond the comprehension of man’s finite mind, God is one in nature but three in person.
Walter Martin http://www.waltermartin.com/articles.html#doctrine

Finally, Bauscher is described on his website as a retired minister but never gives us his denominational affiliation or any resume of theological instruction. In short, he does not admit that he is accountable to anyone for his statements or beliefs. Some threads on Google show that he is a former Baptist that struck out on his own.

My conclusion is that Dave Bauscher has left Christianity to pursue some theological tangents that lead away from the Cross of Christ. He has embraced another Jesus and another Gospel. Let the buyer of his Bible translation beware.

Tea Party & CRA Preemptive Strike on Doug Ose

Former Congressman Doug Ose—who is considering entry into the CD-7 race—was the recipient of a preemptive strike from a coalition of leaders from Tea Party groups and local CRA chapters.

Below is the text of their letter:

It has come to our attention that you are considering running for Congress in California’s 7th Congressional District. We have also heard that you do not want to see a “bloody primary” for the Republican nomination.

We agree. That’s why we are writing today to encourage you not to run in CA-07.

While we respect your commitment to public service, your record in Congress would leave us no choice but to actively oppose your candidacy should you decide to run.

As you know, your record in Congress was not conservative. Below are just a few examples of your Leftist stand on issues that conservatives find unbelievable from a professing “Republican.”

•    You were a strong supporter of earmark spending and voted for billions in earmarks during your tenure in Congress. (Vote #360, 2000; Vote #631, 2004).

•    You also showed hostility to reducing the tax burden on American taxpayers by joining with Democrats to try and reduce tax relief. (Vote #75, 1999).

•    You even voted to give Social Security benefits to illegal aliens. (Vote #439, 2004).

These are just a few of the votes that give us concern about your record and more importantly, how you would vote should you somehow get elected to Congress. It’s vitally important that Ami Bera is defeated next year. But it’s even more important that the voters elect a Congressman committed to protecting taxpayers and reducing the size and cost of the federal government. You are not that man.

Your record indicates you do not share the principles we hold dear: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets. That’s why, should you decide to run, we intend to unite to oppose your candidacy and ensure that the Republican nominee is someone who is committed to fighting for these values.

Sincerely,

local conservatives urge ose to stay out of the elections

I am surprised that such a letter has surfaced this early in the 2014 election cycle. Traditionally, announcing candidacy happens in the fall or winter. The earlier time frame is due to the top two election that has replaced political primaries in June and trying to deter candidates from getting in the race by stuffing war chests with campaign loot early so others will be less interested in jumping into the race.

Of the Republicans interested in CD-7, I know Ted Gaines is out, Elizabeth Emken is in. Igor Birman will likely announce in August or September and Doug Ose is testing his level of support.

I view Ose as the proverbial 800 pound gorilla if he gets in. He has enough personal wealth to be a formidable candidate. His previous incumbency is also an advantage. I think he could siphon votes from Ami Bera; something the other two will have difficulty doing. In previous campaigns Ose has proven to be a street-fighter and he will turn Emken and Birman into roadkill if he can.

In his previous time in Congress, Ose and I have had been both opponents and allies. I rarely agree with him on social issues but I regard him as a man of his word and can count on him to have his deeds match his words. Were he to get in the race, Ose would make it to November. I think he can beat Bera.

I have heard Birman and Emken both speak and I think they will have difficulty connecting with the “low information” voters which are legion in this district. Birman channels Ronald Reagan very well but to this self absorbed generation themes like freedom and liberty will have little traction at the ballot box. Emken has one issue, Obamacare, but since this is the law of the land in California with or without President Obama, I think she will lack a broad enough appeal to a populace that thinks healthcare and education should be free to the masses and paid for by someone else.

If Birman’s boss, Tom McClintock, were to actively campaign for him that would be a game-changer. However, McClintock typically avoids helping to elect fellow Republicans. Occasionally Tom will give someone an endorsement but he is not known for providing campaign resources. Just ask Dan Lungren or Peter Tateishi or any other candidates in Tom’s backyard. McClintock is missing in action when it comes to California politics. Tom has the right Conservative words but I have yet to see the deeds. Will the fact that Ose tried to run against him be enough for McClintock to engage in the race? Unfortunately for Birman, probably not.

The Lone Ranger Movie

As a kid I used to watch The Lone Ranger TV show starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. The show originally aired from 1949 to 1957. (Yes, I watched it in re-runs.) Prior to that, the program had a very long run as a radio program—1933 to 1954. Wikipedia has a good article on the topic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Ranger

Last weekend I went to see the new Disney version with Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp in the title roles. I had read that Despicable Me 2 was creaming it at the box office. I was shocked to read that the film cost over 250 million. I mean, it’s a movie about two guys that ride horses not X-Wing Fighters.

Between the information that I had read and the fact that Depp is almost as odd as Tim Burton, I was not sure what I was going to see. The team that had made Disney’s Pirates films was behind this version of The Lone Ranger. Was this group the right ones to take on the iconic Ranger?

There is a claim that movies often tell you more about who made them and what their views are than what the movie is about; even if it is set in another time period. This film is another such example. John Reid (a.k.a. The Lone Ranger) is portrayed as metrosexual that is afraid of using force or fighting for what is right. Only the coaxing of Tonto (played by Depp) and circumstances force the Ranger to slowly embrace his destiny. The writers of this movie should have read at least one book by Louis L’Amour and watched a few episodes of the old TV show.

Johnny Depp was given latitude to improvise and try to be funny, but his back-story was a repudiation of the portrayal given by Jay Silverheels. Basically the only reason that he hung-out with the Ranger was that the Indians would not have him because he was mentally unbalanced. In Ranger lore, Tonto was saved by the Ranger when both were kids and later Tonto was able to save the Ranger. They had a bond based on the virtues of honor and self sacrifice. Both men represented what was best and operated from a code of ethics that guided their conduct.

The Lone Ranger also suffered from another flaw. This is yet another offering from a large media conglomerate that portrayed all other for profit corporations as evil. Why does Hollywood portray corporations as evil but people are all just various shades of gray? The Ranger lived in a world of black and white; right and wrong. Railroad bashing seemed like a lazy foe from writers that were unwilling to have bad guys be the villains instead of pawns for evil corporate interests.

Also, the army as allies of the bad guys is not consistent with the universe where the Ranger lived. The Army can be delayed or even deceived but for them to willingly be allied with bad guys seems a violation of the established cannon of the golden age of westerns.

This movie reminded me of the Green Hornet movie a few years ago. It was a bad attempt to introduce an iconic hero to the 21st century moviegoer. Ironically, the creators of The Lone Ranger also created the Green Hornet. Per the Wikipedia article above, the Ranger was actually an Uncle of the Hornet.

Lastly, I doubt that few people under forty have ever seen the Clayton Moore/Jay Silverheels portrayal of the Ranger. Disney wrongly assumed that everyone knew who the Ranger was and had a favorable image of him.

The reality was that this movie was not a salute to the Ranger but a parody. The writing was weak and formulaic. I really wanted to like this movie; however, my advice, save your money and catch it on Netflix.

Microsoft Kills TechNet

Today, Microsoft announced that it was terminating its TechNet subscription service. It will stop new subscribers and renewals on August 31st.

I have periodically been a subscriber since the 1990’s. I still have the old library of TechNet CDs that I collected every month back in the old days. I have found it an economical way to keep up on the latest innovations in software and maintain some proficiency on my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. I will be sad to see it go away.

I wonder why MSFT is making this change. Is this part of a move for MSFT as they move from a PC software company to hardware and tablets? Does this mean that the licensing model will be changing to an Adobe subscription model? Is this a loss leader in their eyes? Is everything moving the “the cloud”?

Ultima IX Ascension on 64 bit Windows 8

I’m writing this blog to chronicle my attempts to run this Windows 98 game from 1999 on a modern PC. Nothing that I could find on the Internet seemed to have all the answers in one location. I hope this will help others wishing to run this program.

First off my equipment.
• I own a licensed copy of Ultima IX. Due to some bugs at the time of its release, I also have a second install disk that was sent to me by Origin. This is an installation disk of the final version, 1.18.
• I also have access to two PCs, I will explain why in a short while.
• I found VMware Player a necessary asset but not for the reasons that you think.
• Lastly, I had a full version of Windows 98 Second Edition and a bootable DOS 6.22 CD.

Summary of my adventures.
First, Ultima IX Setup will not run at all on my Windows 8 PC. Not straight out of the box and not in any compatibility mode that is offered in Windows 8. I had feared that I might be dealing with the fact that 16 bit code won’t run on a 64 bit OS but Ultima seems to be a 32 bit game.

I kept reading on the Internet that people were able to get it running. Of those that said it worked on newer versions of Windows none ever mentioned that they actually owned the game. I don’t make a habit of stealing games or getting them from illegal download websites. Also, many websites mentioned a home brewed patch dubbed 1.19 which I did decide to try.

Since Ultima was made for Windows 98 SE, I decided to try VMware to see if I could get the old OS to run. Windows 8 comes with Hyper-V virtualization software which I had used to setup Windows XP. Hyper-V will not support old Microsoft Operating Systems like 95, 98, ME. Unfortunately, VMware cannot exist on the same PC as Hyper-V unless you want to crash your operating system or create an environment that looks a lot like a dual boot OS.

As a result, I installed VMware Player on my Windows Home Sever 2011. The install was quick and I knew enough about virtualization that running it was rather simple.

Getting Windows 98 installed was a relative pain. I could not boot off the 98 CD even though it is the full version for new PCs. My recollection was that you needed a DOS boot disk to start the process. Believe it or not, I actually created a bootable CD for DOS 6.22 about the same time as Ultima was actually released. I popped the disk into the DVD player and then ran FDISK to create a partition and then ran FORMAT /S to get thing going. Then I put the 98 SE disk into the computer and ran Setup.

This worked well until it was time to detect hardware and the associated registry entries and then I got a message that the computer could not read from drive A. (Bootable CDs are treated as the A drive.) I terminated the install and rebooted the virtual machine. The 98 installation resumed and finished with no further problems.

After starting 98 in VMware; however, my virtual machine had no sound. I hunted online and found that installing a driver for Creative Labs Sound Blaster fixed the problem. http://www.techbug.com/en/knowledge-base/289/

Now I was ready to install Ultima. I was able to get thru the two CD installation. The last step is configuring the video and that is where my hopes were dashed. After several days of hacking and searching on the web, I was crushed to learn that VMware does not support 3D video rendering in Windows 95, 98 or ME.

Ok, so here I am with Windows 8 not letting me install the program one my computer and Ultima on my Home Sever installed in a virtual machine that doesn’t support the game. It was enough to break my heart. And then yesterday I saw a post that was my epiphany. I then knew how to turn my lemons into lemonade. Here is the post.

Re: Autorun problems – can’t install Ultima 9
________________________________________
Problem is still not solved, but I found a workaround (at least for my game). Installed Ultima 9 on my wife’s computer and then copied the 1+ gb Ultima directory onto my 2gb flash drive and moved it to my computer. Works fine. In fact I don’t use or need the game CD in the drive.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f149/autorun-problems-cant-install-ultima-9-a-221631.html

 

Old games don’t modify Windows registry because back in the day there wasn’t one and they often did not copy files to C:\Windows\System. I knew this guy was right. I copied the entire Ultima IX directory from my virtual 98 machine to a flash drive. Then I copied it to the root of my C Drive. This is why bit torrent folks could run it and those of us with the physical media could not.

Things I did to modify the install before I tried to run on my Windows 8 computer.
• Modify Option.ini file per http://ultimacodex.com/topic/possible-fix-for-high-crash-frequency-in-ultima-ix/ I recall modifying this file when I ran the game when it first came out. A similar modification is need for some of the Command and Conquer games.
• Patch 1.19 http://ultima9.ultimacodex.com/forgotten-world/

Ultima worked just fine and at a much higher resolution than the 640 x 480 listed on the box. The only catch is that the play disk needs to be in my Blue Ray drive to run the game. I haven’t found a tweak yet to fix that requirement. Perhaps I will mount an ISO image and see if that satisfies the program.

Supreme Court Fails Again

The US Supreme Court laid another stinky pile of manure today on its way out of town for summer vacation. To me this makes no legal sense. First they invalidated DOM (the federal Defense of Marriage Act) on the basis that states have the right to decide what their marriage laws should be. Then, in California’s Prop 8 case, they declare that the voters of a state do not have the right to decide what their definition of marriage should be.

Clearly, this is what you get without a moral compass to guide you. Moral Relativism leads only to schizophrenia and unintelligible nonsense. Congress could fix this but they lack the moral will to act. The net result is that another institution that once held the West on solid footing has fallen.

We need reformation or rebellion. Perhaps the question, “Who is John Galt” is not in our future but the dystopia we are creating leads only to the Road to Serfdom. Liberals in our time truly believe the big lie that “Slavery is Freedom” because that is what they have in store for us.

A relatively unknown Christian rock band called Quickflight did a song called “Modern Romans”. I think the title of this song is in fact our future. In ancient Rome, citizens could worship any god they wanted as long as Caesar is supreme. I fear we are heading toward the same belief; thus any beliefs that present a challenge to ruling class will be viewed as treasonous and will not be tolerated. Thus Christianity will be illegal. Those who renounce the supremacy of the State will be punished. Churches will be regulated and those that refuse to conform to the moral principles of the State will be outlawed. (Can you see why a 501.C3 is a bad idea?) It follows that Christians that maintain orthodox biblical beliefs will be prohibited from government benefits such as student loans, social security, federal or state jobs, etc. Also children of believers will be removed from their parents and given to others because of their intolerance and hateful beliefs such as opposing abortion, homosexuality and tyranny. To declare “Jesus is Lord” and truly believe it will soon be the unpardonable sin in our society.

This will happen sooner than later. Ironically, those that proclaimed they would always remember the Holocaust, are among those that will be putting us to the sword. They have already forgotten the promise that they made to the world to oppose tyranny in all its forms. They are aligned with those in power so the whole “when they came for me” argument is a non-starter. Proof? Had they really meant what they said, Roe v Wade would never have been allowed to stand.

I am reminded of the Curses recorded in Deuteronomy Chapter 28. I believe that this is the future we will experience if we stay on the path we are following.  Here are a few highlights that will be visiting us:

15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do , until thou be destroyed , and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
36 The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. 44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth ; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand ;
50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst , throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

As I read this, I keep thinking of China & Islam carving up the West. Judgment can lead to either repentance or destruction. Thus far, we keep choosing destruction.

Public Safety Risk Increasing

Yet another article on the threat to public safety by release of prisoners. Even I am surprised by number of bad guys already let loose on the public.

The state has reduced its prison population by more than 46,000 inmates since 2006, with more than half the decrease due to a 2-year-old state law that is sentencing lower-level criminals to county jails instead of state prisons. But the population remains about 9,400 inmates over the level required by the courts.

The state has said it can whittle the population further by the end of the year but would remain 2,300 inmates over the court-ordered number.

“It’s inevitable. You’re going to have people released to the community who are continuing to commit more crime and, as such, our population in the (jail) facility is going to be impacted,” said Sgt. Jason Ramos, of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

He added, there’s a 70 percent chance criminals released will reoffend.
Read more: http://www.kcra.com/news/judges-gov-brown-must-fully-comply-with-prison-order/-/11797728/20650150/-/dpyo3p/-/index.html#ixzz2Wso78db5

Emphasis added by me.
Instead of building more prisons our elected officials are trying to disarm the public.

My solution is to release all the prisoners in the neighborhood where the judges live and see how they like living with their rulings.

D-Day Remembered

Yesterday was the 69th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion at the beaches in Normandy France.
It also happened to be the day of our month meeting of my local California Republican Assembly chapter. As President, I took the opportunity to remember the soldiers that participated in this assault; especially the 9,000 men that lost their lives that day.

Launching the invasions from bases in England, I can’t help but think that for at least some of these men, the last thing they prayed was the Anglican Prayer In the time of War and Tumults from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

O ALMIGHTY God, King of all kings, and Governor of all things, whose power no creature is able to resist, to whom it belongeth justly to punish sinners, and to be merciful to those who truly repent; Save and deliver us, we humbly beseech thee, from the hands of our enemies; abate their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices; that we, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore from all perils, to glorify thee, who art the only giver of all victory; through the merits of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We then had a moment of silence and began our meeting.

Switching Windows Phone 8 from Hotmail to Outlook

Moving my email from Hotmail.com to Outlook.com has involved some preplanning and a few minor heartaches. Here is what I have done and experienced thus far. I hope this will be helpful to others that plan to do likewise in the future.

I use my Windows Live account—or whatever Microsoft wants to call it these days—on my Windows 8 PC and my Windows 8 Phone. I found an article that claimed that by following their instructions that you can switch to a new Microsoft Account and keep your app purchases. Their method was to transfer everything from one Live account to another via an XBOX 360. I followed the instructions on the article found here
http://www.wpcentral.com/guide-how-get-new-live-id-and-keep-all-your-windows-phone-app-purchases

After following the instructions in the link above, this is what I experienced.
My XBOX points moved from one account to the other but moving the phone purchases was a bust. Only two apps have moved from the old account to the new. One was an old version of angry Birds which says it is no longer available for download and a tower defense game called SwampDefense. I had made a list of all apps on my phone prior to moving accounts so I know what I should have. After doing the Factory Reset as instructed in the link above, I found and installed the free apps that I had previously had on my phone. Many of my paid apps were originally downloaded at times when there was either a free introductory offer or they were on sale in the Store. Some posts I have read said that it can take up to three days for apps to be moved. I don’t think this is going to work, but I’m only halfway thru the three day time period.

*****
Update #1
About three and a half days after the switch, another group of old apps appears on my purchase history. However, there is still a gap from August of 2012 to June of 2013.This of course is the period that I most want to reinstall. Also, note on old entries that while the apps are on the list, the word “Purchase” does not appear in the payment column.

Secondly, when I log into Hotmail—my old phone account—I see all purchases for both the Outlook and Hotmail accounts. Also, the Hotmail log in shows Other Phones as an option on the account. This gives me some hope that the switch is still in progress.

Upon further review however, I found the other device listed was my old HTC Trophy phone. It was not removed from my Hotmail account when I bought the HTC 8X.
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Other posts that I read said that you will have the apps available but must go thru the motions to purchase the apps again and once you hit buy, the phone will say you have already purchased the app and can then download it without paying. This has not been my experience. I tried and ended-up buying an app that I had previously purchased.

I will not say that this method never worked but it certainly does not any more…at least as advertised.

Changing the login on the Windows 8 PC seemed easy enough. I changed from a Microsoft account to a local account. Once that process was completed, I then attached the computer login to the new Live account. The first change that I noticed was that my list of recent documents in Microsoft Office was reset and I had to setup my email accounts again. I don’t have any purchased apps in Windows 8 so I don’t know if they followed or not. If the few apps that I have installed still function and update then I think it is safe to assume that they are OK.

I went thru my list of usernames and passwords and updated my email information. In some cases, I could update them using the PC and test the change by logging into the app on my phone. An example of this would be Amazon.com where your email address is part of your login to the site.

The other issue I have with Hotmail is that there is no way to cancel the auto renewal of the account using any Microsoft website. You can either plan ahead by setting up the default credit card with one that will expire before the renewal date or outright cancel the account. There is no way to revert back to a free account without contacting MSFT. I am trying to use an email support feature buried deep in the bowels of the support website to see if they will cancel the automatic renewal but I have yet to hear from them.

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Update #2
Surprisingly, within about an hour, I received a reply from Microsoft and with a few more emails was able to cancel the auto renewal of my Hotmail account.
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The other Windows Phone question that I had was related to phone updates to the BIOS and Operating System. What happens when you do a complete reset of the phone? Do updates need to be installed again—like I would after using a PC restore disk—or do the master restore files get updated as part of the updating process? Surprisingly, the updates appear to be permanently installed. I never needed to update the BIOS or Operating System following the reset. Manually running the Check for Updates feature for the phone OS, states that the phone is up to date.

About twenty hours after I did the phone reset, I got a batch of updates that were phone specific for audio and other features. This update notification was via the Store.

Transferring my TechNet subscription was the simplest part. I just clicked on a link for this purpose and followed the steps. This was the most painless part of the whole process. My only concern was that after I was done, I could log on with my new account but the box with my name in it still was showing my old email address. Changing the TechNet login however does not change the email address of any Microsoft newsletters to which you may have subscribed.

My Resignation from Boy Scouts

Last night was the night I have been dreading for many days. I finally responded to the Scout vote last week and sent in my resignation to my local Pack.

Before I wrote my resignation email, I sat down with my son and explained why he and daddy needed to leave Scouting. I tried to explain the vote in simple terms without getting into specifics. I told him that the Scouts had adopted policies that were contrary to what Jesus taught us. He was not satisfied with such a vague reason so I tried a different tack.

Then I said that marriage was between one man and one woman. He agreed with this. Then I asked him about the principal at the school where mommy worked. I said he is a man and is married to another man. My son understood that this was wrong. I said the Scouts have changed their policy to permit such behavior and said that this is OK.

At this point he began crying. I asked him why? His response was that he could never be an Eagle Scout and that would make it much harder to be President when he grows up.( He wants to be President so he can undo all the bad stuff that Obama has done to our country.) I told him that instead we would have “daddy scouts”; I would have to take him camping and fishing and do more stuff with him. I told him that some people were trying to organize a Christian replacement for Scouting but I don’t know how far they will get by the time school starts up next fall. He was happier with this explanation. Then I sent him to bed and sat down and wrote my letter to the Pack leader.

I told the Pack leader that I was leaving but offered to allow time for a second signer to be added to the checking account. As Treasurer I support the two signature rule on expenditure of funds. Yes I know I’m showing more grace to the Scouts than they showed to me but I don’t directly blame the local Pack for the turmoil caused by the national organization. In my letter I stated that we would be at the meeting tonight to watch my son advance to the rank of Bear. He earned it. (This advancement was supposed to be last week before the vote but was changed at the last minute.) Following the meeting tonight, I will be done with Scouts.

Today I sent a letter to my son’s private Christian school to ask them to prevent Scouts from using their facilities unless the Pack breaks away from the BSA. This will be interesting to see how the school and its sponsoring church handle this situation. The Pack has been permitted to use the school facilities as long as some members are from the school—many children in the Pack attend local public schools.

Prior to tonight’s meeting, I will see if I can find some information to give to parents about the vote. The national organization kept the local scout council in a virtual news blackout leading up to the vote and no information was circulated to them or to any of the local Packs. The policy change was engineered in secret because it was the only way that advocates could get it passed. This vote also flipped scouts from a grassroots organization to a top-down one. Look for the BSA to consolidate this power in the coming months.