Brazil has the second-worst income disparity in the world. I'd like to find the list, but that's what I heard on a report about the police-gang war in Sao Paulo. There are great mansions next to grindingly poor slums, called favelas.I worry because America is heading that direction as our income disparity increases.

I ask the question, what poverty of spirit must exist in the wealthy to perpetuate their luxury and consumption in the face of such needs among the poor? Do they gain the world, but lose their souls? Do the poor hate the rich for their wealth? Do they lose both the world and their souls?

I remember a woman in my church once testified that the duty of the rich is to help the poor. The duty of the poor is to accept the help humbly, without coveting. The duty of everyone is to have compassion upon one another.

I hope I would never move into a grand mansion of the world while dispossessing my soul of its eternal resting place.

The BBS had been down for a while due to a server upgrade. It's back up now, and everything's still there, more or less. If you can't find something you were looking for, then less is your term. If you find something new, then... more.

There ya go.

Hahahahahaha!

OK, so I still need to fill out the bibliography, but I finally finished that history of China I'd been working on. Depressing as the CCP's control of China may be, the spirit of Tiananmen that persists in Hong Kong's annual memorials of the protests gives me hope. It is a small hope, but hope does not need to be large in order to survive.

There is something greater than earthly power and might: one day, we will all know this. I have hope that day will come.