Noah D. Arney

Author: Noah Arney

  • Dobson, Trump, Faith, and Power

    The major Evangelical leader Dr. Dobson has put out a release talking about Donald Trump’s faith. Now I was under the impression that there was no “religious test… as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust”. But since Dobson brought it up… in the words of Aaron Burr in Hamilton “Ok, so we’re doin’ this”.

    His post on “Culture Watch” is available here.

    Let’s break it down:

    Only the Lord knows the condition of a person’s heart.  I can only tell you what I’ve heard.  First, Trump appears to be tender to things of the Spirit.

    Yes, that’s true. Only the Lord knows. However, the bible says a few other things about the heart:

    Luke 12:33-34: Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

    Do we want to consider where Trump’s treasure is? We don’t need to ask, he talks about it time and time again.

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  • Thoughts on the Syrian Refugee Crisis

    I thought I’d take a look at the countries who are hosting the most Syrian Refugees. So with a quick skim of news reports and Wikipedia I have this.

    These are the countries that have brought in the most Syrian refugees by percentage of their population:
    Lebanon (22%)
    Jordan (10%)
    Macedonia (10%)
    Serbia (4%)
    Greece (4%)
    Turkey (4%)
    Kuwait (2%)
    Qatar (2%)
    Croatia (1.5%)
    Sweden (1%)
    UAE (1%)

    The honorable mentions are:
    Germany (almost 500,000)
    Egypt (130,000)
    and surprisingly
    Saudi Arabia (75,000)

    Remember that the next time someone says that the middle eastern countries aren’t pulling their weight. Saudi Arabia has even brought in more than three times more refugees than Canada’s 25,000 (four times if you’re determining it as a percentage of population).

    And the US? 3000 refugees. That’s lower than any other developed country except for Japan (refusing to take any), Israel (refusing to take any), China (refusing to take any), India (they’ve taken in about 50) Czech Republic (holding the few they have in prisons and under investigation for human rights violations), & Finland (though they’ve accepted 20 times more refugees by percentage of population than the US).

    Think about that a bit.

  • Republican Candidate Prediction

    14 candidates step in, one steps out. Hey that could be an interesting TV show. But since we don’t do this by cage match who has a chance at winning the Republican nomination?

    Alright, I’m going to cut out anyone who polled lower than one percent on any of the polls in the last week. I’m basing that on the polls available here which is:

    • RCP Average
    • FOX News
    • Quinnipiac
    • NBC/WSJ
    • IBD/TIPP
    • CBS/NY Times

    So with that we have:

    • Carson
    • Trump
    • Rubio
    • Cruz
    • Bush
    • Fiorina
    • Kasich
    • Paul
    • Huckabee
    • Christie

    Sorry Santorum, Jindal, Graham, and Pataki you’re out, but you’ll have company soon.

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  • Surface Phone?

    I love my Windows Phone. Unfortunately it’s time to upgrade and I can get a very good Android phone for $200 cheaper than the new Lumia 950. So I’m going to have to say goodbye to the Windows Phone for a few years. That being said Microsoft has done a good thing getting their ecosystem into Android, so although I’ll have an Android it will be running the same ecosystem apps I’m used to (oh Office, you make my life so much easier).

    But I’m not here to lament the cost of the new Lumia, but rather to look ahead at what might be. A Surface Phone.

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  • Why I Can’t Vote Conservative Any More

    I am an ex Conservative voter. I maintain that I didn’t leave them, they left me.

    I have voted for three different parties in the four federal elections I’ve participated in, only the Conservatives twice. The two Conservative MPs I’ve voted for both have my respect. They are good people. They have done great things for their constituents. One of them was such a great MP I debated becoming a party member. The conservatives have done some good things while they’ve been in power. The repealing of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act was a good move. I was writing about it back in 2008. I also have high praise for Jim Flaherty. He was a great finance minister and I feel that the Conservatives successes with the Canadian economy should be attached to him and not to Stephen Harper. I also wonder what he would have thought about Harper criticizing Trudeau that you shouldn’t run a deficit in a recession, when that is exactly what Flaherty did to help the Canadian economy during the recession in 2008.

    But, I can’t vote Conservative again.

    I can’t vote Conservative because I can’t align my faith and beliefs with it.

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  • Canada’s Response to the Refugee Crisis

    This post has been percolating for over a month now. So sorry it’s a bit long but I like giving facts and doing my best to not misrepresent people. I don’t often include Bible verses on my blog but today I am.

    Matthew 25:34-36

    Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

    A few weeks ago I asked my local MP (the Honorable Ed Fast) about Canada’s response to the war against ISIS and the refugee crisis that has been made immeasurably worse because of it. I agree with MCC on this in that a lasting solution needs to be a non-military solution that removes or reduces the reasons for radicalization and works toward peace. I was concerned that the Prime Minister seemed to be advocating for more military action because of the refugee crisis.

    His response was:

    “With respect to the Syrian conflict, let me correct you by saying that the Prime Minister has not advocated for MORE military action (as you have suggested) but for a balanced approach which includes three pillars: humanitarian assistance (of which Canada is one of the world’s largest donors), military intervention and resettlement of refugees. We do not have any plans to increase our military presence in Syria and Iraq.”

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  • “Old Stock Canadians”

    *update at the end*

    So in the debate today Stephen Harper said “Old Stock Canadians” and it’s taking twitter by storm (in that no one outside twitter cares yet, but they might tomorrow).

    So I decided to find out what it means. I thought it was a minor dog whistle like “real Americans”. I wish that was it.

    Recently it’s been used mostly by Conservatives with the attempted implication that they just meant not recent immigrants.

    From Jason Kenny’s speech on Immigration and Multiculturalism at University of Western Ontario in 2009:

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  • Dispelling Myths about First Nations Chief’s Salaries

    First nations chiefs are essentially CEOs these days. And with the First Nations Financial Transparancy Act we can see how much they’re making – see here for the data.

    Now that list includes counselors so I pulled only chiefs and based this on the results.

    Remember, these are CEOs. In addition to managing Treaty & Indian Act money coming in from the government they also manage various band run businesses, land and many other organizations.

    Average salary: $80,00
    Median salary: $75,000 (median Canadian salary is $70,000)

    # paid less than poverty line: 76 (11%)
    # paid less than canadian average salary: 179 (26%)
    # paid less than middle class salary: 230 (34%)
    # paid less than canadian median salary: 286 (42%)
    # paid middle class salary 185 (27%)
    # paid more than canadian middle class salary: 264 (39%)
    # making it into the top 100 highest paid CEOs: 0

    The highest paid chief made $930,793 but remember most of that (86% to be exact) was a bonus for negotiating a $8 million land deal for the band.

    Only 15% of chiefs are even classed as “rich” (earning over $125,000 per year). To put that into perspective, more chiefs are earning less than $30,000.
    So it looks like in general the “rich chief” myth isn’t just misleading, it’s completely wrong.