Between 1921 and 1923 the currency of the Weimar Republic hyper-inflated to the point where a loaf of bread that cost around 160 marks in 1921 ended up costing 200,000,000,000 marks by the end of 1923. A similar situation happened more recently in Zimbabwe: 2008-2009 inflation, thought to be occurring at 89.7 sextillion percent year-over-year, led to 100 trillion dollar bank notes being printed. It’s almost laughable, except when you consider the people trying to survive these consequences by fleeing to other currencies and countries.

Corrupt Currency Is A Problem

As the above stories demonstrate, society cannot print money ad infinitum and have it maintain the same value, but many governments today are doing it anyway. The sad reality is that this degrades the purchasing power of the poor the most. Printed money flows to harder assets, equities, housing, and land. The rich get richer and/or are able to maintain wealth through asset inflation, while the poor who have no assets only get to see everything get more expensive.

CEO of Global Macro Investor, Raoul Pal says, “debasing the currency is very insidious. Yes, I think [it] is better than to allow total collapse because that destroys EVERYONE but debasement is something most people don’t see until it’s too late. Asset prices rise so everyone who can own assets thinks they are a winner, [b]ut most are just keeping up with debasement, if indeed they can afford investment assets.”

Christians should care about this.

God Cares About Money

The Bible has a lot to say about money. Jesus spoke more about money than most other subjects. God says, “A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have… all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deut. 25:15-16). So as Christians we need to ask: What makes for sound money that is fair and beneficial to society? How can we prevent a corrupt monetary policy?

Bitcoin has all the properties of sound money and prevents corrupt monetary and fiscal policy.

The Point of Money & Need for Sound Money

Money is made to be a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. Its store of value function is particularly important in that, as its underlying value is debased, it is felt in prices (the medium-of-exchange function) and then eventually fails as a unit of account. Throughout history various mediums of exchange have been used as money: rai stones, seashells, gold, copper, silver, bronze, wood, and paper bills.

What is needed is sound (hard) money: fungible (interchangeable), divisible, durable, transferable, and scarce. Currency is supposed to make exchange easier–as God instructs in Deuteronomy 14:24-26, exchanging tithes into money to bring them to God’s sanctuary.

Bitcoin Is a Sound Money Solution

Bitcoin is a global, decentralized, non-sovereign, hard-capped supply (21 million), digital store of value with a programmed decreasing rate of inflation. Bitcoin is “mined” through complex computations which contribute to the security of the network. From its very first block one can see the purpose intended as the following statement is embedded on the blockchain: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” This is in reference to the folly of fractional reserve banking and propping up of failed, destructive policies (such as the rampant greed in subprime mortgages). Bitcoin has all the characteristics of hard money, protects from corrupt monetary policy, and is better than gold in that it is easier to transport and can secure energy around the globe (it incentivizes cheaper and renewable energy).

Lord Acton, the British historian said, “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” However, he also said, “The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.” Bitcoin is a realization that every central authority will tend toward corruption and there will never be a class that will set it right.

Bitcoin can be thought of as pristine collateral. It is a path toward sound money that does not deceptively steal from the poor. It is a just weight and fair measure. The ship of fiat currencies has sunk many times in the past and is indeed sinking again as countries worldwide are debasing their currency. Christians should be helping as many people as possible get into hard assets that will help maintain purchasing power and hedge against the debasement. Bitcoin provides the easiest path as a life-raft to ease the trauma of dying currencies (and protects against abuses of new central bank digital currencies).

Objections To Using Bitcoin
It is used for crime!
Every currency is used for crime because man is evil. Bitcoin is a public ledger. I repeat, a public ledger. In general, it is less private than cash, but more private than a credit card. It is easy for governments and institutions to track the transactions made with it since the ledger is public. The pseudonomous addresses are easily linked to the original purchaser when bought at a centralized exchanged or service. For citizens concerned about privacy they can buy non-KYC bitcoin, coinjoin their bitcoin for forward looking privacy, or use another private currency such as Monero.

I don’t understand it! Who created it?
There are many wonderful things that we use everyday that we do not understand. Do you understand how your washing machine, car, or phone works? The creator, Satoshi Nakamato, is unknown and has remained anonymous. Who created the wheel? I do not know, but it has a proven track record and can be clearly seen as reliable.

It is too volatile! It is speculative!
As adoption grows and cycles the purchasing power will fluctuate. It is best to be seen as a way to opt out of the damage due to inflation, while an individual can still maintain some fiat currency for daily living. Some suggest that you should only put money into bitcoin that you can lose, but as millions have understood bitcoin better they say you should only put money into bitcoin that you want to keep. There are a couple things to keep in mind with regard to bitcoin: 1) It is important to have a low time preference–use it as a savings mechanism where you do not need the funds for at least 2-3 years, 2) When currencies fail there is wild volatility, the volatility of bitcoin is not only due to its newness and some speculation but also it is showing a problem with the reserve currency (USD), 3) One bitcoin is one bitcoin–if you just measure your stack by bitcoin you will be less troubled by the volatility, just keep stacking sats and do not measure the amount in USD. There are millions of people stacking bitcoin every day and month on a regular basis and due to its scarcity it will continue to rise over time.
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A Final Word

While there is much more that can be asked and said, the aim of this article has been to help open eyes to the problem of current fiat currencies and show how bitcoin (or something like it) can be the solution. Christians should engage with the best arguments for bitcoin rather than the worst arguments against bitcoin. How would you value sound money that everyone agrees that they can trust due to its transparency and immutability?

Resources
• The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth
• The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
• The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous
• Layered money by Nik Bhatia
• Short one page intro by Preston Pysh
• Short explanation video on bitcoin
• For more in-depth philosophy behind bitcoin, here is a discussion between Dr. Jordan Peterson
and Dr. Saifedean Ammous
• Casa – A safe way to store your bitcoin and teach you how to use bitcoin in a secure manner
• Exodus – A well-designed, private wallet where you can self-custody bitcoin and other crypt

Enjoyed this article? You can donate Bitcoin here:

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Prefer to donate more privately? You can donate Monero here:

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* This post contains affiliate links to products that we use and recommend.

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I know you may be thinking, “what’s the big deal?” or “do you have something against bras?” To which I say, no, just dirty ones that hang on my door knob, tie rack, shower rod, coat rack, toothbrush holder, review mirror, ceiling fan, hallway banister and on the shelf next to the toilet! Let’s talk about the bra hanging next to the toilet shall we. The toilet is where excrement, feces, or caca is deposited. Once deposited it is then flushed vaporizing small particles of pooh on your “clean”, over the shoulder, boulder holder—thereby making it, in fact, only cleansable by fire. Particles of pooh, ladies! Let that sink in for a minute.

So what do we do about this epidemic? Do what I do, rub the hanging bra on your dirty arm pit and then take it to your wife and have her do the sniff test to see if her bra is “clean”. You’ll have her convinced that she smells like smoked meat and the bottom of the outside trash bin on a 100-degree day after taco Tuesday, just like that. Problem solved!

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Sorry for the digression.

Over the years I have taken fitness very seriously and consider myself now to be an expert in the field. An expert has years of experience under his/her belt and has devoted themselves to endless study on the subject. The expert isn’t above learning but he/she is very confident at delivering results when they commit to training a client. That is, of course, until you start working out with your wife.

As my wife’s personal trainer I can say with confidence, she can be mean—I mean, strong? She has the fortitude to be a highly skilled killer—I mean, athlete! Yeah, athlete!! Um yeah, how shall I say this? Well, working out with my wife can be an exercise in self-defense, for me! She’s great at stretching and maybe even warming up, but when it comes to burpees, pull-ups, pushups, or anything that will make her sweat a little, well then, she’s, she’s just plain mean! I’m convinced that if I turned my back on her she would kettle bell swing me right in the face!

Let’s all just settle down

Sure, maybe I’m being dramatic here. You’re probably thinking that I am over-training her or working her harder than any other client. I assure you the only one getting over-training here is me! I have to duck and squat to miss her death stares and evil grunts. As a matter of fact just last month I’m pretty sure she killed the UPS delivery man. He came in just as she finished doing sit-ups and caught a medicine ball to the throat. He wobbled out of the gym and staggered to the truck and I never received my 55 gallon bucket O’ whey protein that I ordered.

So what do you do about working out with your wife? Don’t!

Let her do her yoga, pilates, or barre class on her own with her friends. And when she wants to spend 1.5 hours on the treadmill with a copy of Vanity Fair magazine let her do her thing or suffer the consequences! Ye be warned! I’ve got to go, my wife is using the couch cushions as a back stop for her knife throwing again.

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There comes a time in everyone’s life where you realize a new passion. For me, it was in my early twenties, working an office job, obsessing about what to eat every day for lunch. I realized I liked thinking about food so much that I wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to cook more. So I thought, maybe, I wanted to start a food blog? That’s how my own site, Food Loves Writing, came to be. This was in 2008, in the early stages of the blog craze. Yet, even now, food blogs keep growing. New ones launch every day. If you’ve been thinking about starting a food blog and wondering where to start, this post is for you.

Why Starting a Food Blog Matters

People love to talk about how the blog world is oversaturated, but here’s the truth: starting a blog is just as valuable as any other passion project. By starting a food blog, you start a project fueled by your own interests and enjoyment. You get to celebrate something you love. Along the way, you may be surprised at all you learn. Personally, food blogging has given me:

• 8 years of practice following, testing, creating and sharing recipes
• A collection of tried-and-tested meals I vetted myself
• Connection with other food writers and passionate eaters
• Friendships with people in my own hometown and far beyond it (I even met my husband through blogs!)
• Practice in personal narrative
• New photography and editing skills
• Growing HTML skills
• New freelance photography, recipe-development and writing projects
• The chance to publish a cookbook
• The chance to travel on sponsored trips
• Exposure to a wealth of new ingredients and food ideas
• The gift of sticking with one project with consistency

What could starting a food blog give you? Who knows. But if there’s something tugging at you to do it, I’d suggest you listen.

How to Go about Starting a Food Blog

When you know you want to start a blog, your next question will probably be the same question every blogger asks before he or she starts. How? How do I start a blog? What do I need to do? Do I need web-design skills? Is this going to be complicated? The honest answer is you can do it. If you can follow a recipe (and you can!), you can start a food blog. You can start any blog. Building a website is as easy as following a few steps:

1. Pick a Name and a Host.

Let’s be honest, picking a name isn’t easy. When I was pregnant with my son, I obsessed about potential name choices for almost the full nine months. (He’s Rocco now, by the way.) Take your time, explore ideas, bounce names off of friends and see what sticks. When you know what you want to call your site, you need to pick a host. A host is just a company that sort of handles putting your site online. I recommend Bluehost. Bluehost is who I went with when I started my site. It’s easy to use, gives you a free domain the first year and has online customer service. You can sign up with Bluehost through my affiliate link here: http://www.bluehost.com/track/foodloves.

2. Pick a Platform.

There are lots of different Web platforms available. I like WordPress. It’s free, it’s customizable and it’s loaded with cool theme options on the Web. To use WordPress, log in to your Bluehost dashboard, click the “hosting” tab on the top and scroll down to the button that says “install WordPress.” Click it. Boom.

3. Customize!

Now’s the fun (and also hard) part. You get to design your site. Yay! Now that you’ve got WordPress installed, you’ll see that when you go to your domain (i.e., mine is foodloveswriting.com), you see something. Your site is active. Now it just needs your loving touch. You can shop around for WordPress themes online. There are thousands. Tim and I like the Divi theme because it makes almost any design possible. Follow the Divi tutorial and play around. You’re ready to blog!

The thing about staring a food blog is it’s an adventure. You get to share your thoughts and recipes in the voice that is uniquely yours. How will the world benefit from the beauty you share with it? It’s up to you to find out.

Rooting for you!

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To that I say, CALM DOWN. Don’t be a debbie downer!

Good, now that you are settled we can talk. Nobody wants to hold a conversation with a person who looks at a handstand and somehow sees a half lion, half cobra with 10 legs and a light saber decapitating puppies. So let’s consider calisthenics with more information less fear.

Calisthenics are best described as body weight training. Your body weight plus leverage equals calisthenics! Using your strength applied at an angle will produce strength. Easy, right? Wrong. It all starts with simple fun exercises like pushups, squats, lunges, jump rope and chin-ups. The strength that you accumulate from these exercises will propel into things like: muscle-ups, handstands, L-sits, pistol squats, and maybe even the planche.

What’s really great about calisthenics is that calisthenics plus flexibility training (like yoga) will unlock so much more strength than nearly any other fitness modality. That deserves a re-read! I see that shocked expression! Before you email me and tell me why your training program is better than mine remember this 1) I don’t care. 2) no it’s not .

I challenge you to try calisthenics once a week. Start on Monday because you’ll want to have fresh muscles. For more personal guidance, come visit us at www.LifeFitness-Academy.com or check out the Nashville Calisthenics instagram.

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If there’s a deadline, it will almost always be late. It seems to attract lateness like a moth to the flame. So how do we beat these deadlines? I don’t know your answer, but I will give you my list.

Stamp it. Add said deadline.
Prioritize it. Put it in it’s place.
Double stamp it. Move said deadline.
Do it. Actually look at the task and give it a title.
Triple stamp it. Move deadline back a day.
Finish it. Submit project for spell checking.
Triple stamp a double stamp. You can’t triple stamp a double stamp!
Complete it. Turn in and hope for the best!

I hope this list helps you, I put it to the test at least once a week. If you find yourself not finishing the list, then you may want to write the article “what to do about procrastination”. As I always say, “when in doubt, blog it out!”

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You would think that there would be a trade off here with the cute and fuzzy to the loud and messy. There isn’t. I would much rather watch them run and frolic carelessly in my neighbor’s yard–as a matter of fact, I think that would be great and a good way to waste an hour of my morning. I digress.

What I want to do with those squirrels I can’t because of the hate mail I would receive, and then there are the neighbors always talking about the “gun laws”. I will tell you you exactly what I want to do with my little furry foe. I will tell you by first telling you about my uncle, trust me it will make sense in the end.

My uncle on my dad’s side, I can’t specify because there are seven, but I will tell you he is older than my dad and cleans his gun at the dinner table during dinner. One day when I was 12 my dad asked me if I wanted to go with him up to my uncle’s place. I said, “sure”, I didn’t really remember this uncle because there are seven, but I didn’t want to hang out at home because I have sisters.

So we get there in a little city called Covington, OH, where they have 5 bars and 2 stop lights. My uncle comes out of the garage and we joined him to go up to the house when he stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to my dad and said, “do you hear that?” My dad said, “what?” “Those damn squirrels are over there by my house again.” He proceeded to tell us that they had chewed their way into his house and made a giant nest where they had babies and they peed all over the attic till it soaked though the ceiling and down the wall. My dad was surprised to see my uncle return very quickly from the garage with a 12-gauge shot gun. He pulled two shells out of his pocket and my dad said to me, “son, cover your ears”. Then all of the sudden BOOM BOOM! Two toasty squirrels fell out of the tree and landed in the neighbor’s yard. Then I heard the neighbor say, “great shot, I will put these on the grill for you”.

So there you have it, this is the reason why I want to blast anything that doesn’t talk off of my property. It was the coolest thing that I have ever seen, and that is why my dad has never taken me back there. So what am I going to do? Well, due to the graphic nature of the solution, I cannot tell you, but I will tell you that when I find a “system” that works, you will be the first to know.

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Welp is a flagrant corruption of the word well. The puh sound added to the end of welp enhances the conspicuousness and finality of the meaning. I am not sure how I feel about that.

Typically, welp might be said when one feels as if there is nothing else to say regarding a matter or circumstance, or that one is resigned. However, it may also be used, as I often do, when one is about to list one’s options. An example for the former would be, “Welp, see ya later!” or “Welp, that’s all there is to say.” An example for the latter would be, “Welp, we could go out to eat, go shopping, or go jump off a cliff?” or “Welp, there is a lot of confidence instilled when you take a stand in life and live with freedom, freedom to do what is right, not to do whatever one wants or desires.”

Those who only see it as a negative thing, tend that way in life. They disparage, and thus they feel disparaged themselves. Welp, as with other variations of established words, should be said with lightheartedness, not darkheartedness. That really is the key in writing and thinking about, what to do about welping: promoting the goodwill and common understanding of the usage.

I am not, by any means, advocating that everyone take up the usage of the word welp in greater frequency. In fact, I am very comfortable with people not ever using it. It is not to be used in such a way that would be to the abandonment of its highly esteemed parent: well. Welp, that is all. May you be blessed.

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It’s that time of the year again!! The Super Bowl has been played and another team has claimed the Lombardi Trophy. For us football fans it’s a time for mourning. Unless you’re a Green Bay fan!! Now comes the long wait till the NFL Draft in April, and in our hopes our favorite team makes the best picks in the Draft. But I won’t expound on the Draft till April. Let me take a look at this season in retrospect.

Teams that impressed me the most:

2010-2011 Super Bowl Champs, the Green Bay Packers: Here’s a team that overcame so much adversity with injuries and still managed to win the Super Bowl. Aaron Rogers proved that he was the right choice as the starting QB back in 2008.
The Pittsburgh Steelers: Despite Big Ben being suspended and Santonio Holmes being traded to the Jets they still managed to frustrate opposing offenses and defenses. Except for the Green Bay Packers!!!
The New England Patriots: 2010-2011 MVP QB Tom Brady with another stellar season. It’s too bad Belichick gambled on benching WR Wes Welker during the playoff matchup with the Jets.
The St. Louis Rams: Despite a rookie QB, they came so close to going to the playoffs, but I have my eye on this team for next season.
The Seattle Seahawks: For having the worst regular season record for a division champion they still managed to beat the New Orleans Saints. Again, I have my eye on this team next season.
The Atlanta Falcons: With an impressive 13-3 record in the regular season, this team has what it takes to be a threat next season.
The Kansas City Chiefs: From being a joke last season to AFC West Champs is all I can say about this team.
The Jacksonville Jaguars: Despite losing the last few games during the regular season, they came close to winning the division.
The New York Jets: If you read my 2010-2011 Predictions I predicted that the Jets would’ve won the Super Bowl. However, don‚Äôt hold your breath for next season as 17 of their starters are up for free agency in this coming off-season.
The Philadelphia Eagles: MICHAEL VICK!!!!! Enough said.
Finally the Chicago Bears: I thought these guys were bottom of the barrel but somehow they managed first place. Peppers was a beast, but I still wasn’t impressed with Jay Cutler.

Teams that just sucked:

The San Francisco 49ers: I thought these guys were the NFC West division winners at the beginning of the season. Boy was I wrong!! Singletary was short-changed as head coach.
The Tennessee Titans: Chris Johnson had a disappointing season, Vince Young was terrible and Jeff Fisher is about to collect unemployment. In other words, a big fail for my hometown team.
The Cincinnati Bengals: I don‚Äôt know what was up with these guys? They had the best team in my opinion. Two of the best deep threats in the game, a killer rookie Tight End, and a Wes Welker type slot receiver. This team’s future looks bleak for next season since Carlson Palmer wants out. Sorry Tim and Terry.
The Indianapolis Colts: I bet you’re wondering why they are on this list, but with costly injuries and one of the worst seasons from Peyton Manning, I decided to add them.
The Minneapolis Vikings: In simple words “PLEASE FAVRE RETIRE ALREADY!!!”
The Arizona Cardinals: Like I predicted Matt Leinart was a bust after Warner retired and they had to rely on Derek Anderson. I just hope he takes next season more seriously if he is still up for the job.
And finally the Dallas Cowboys: Of all the teams that imploded this season, the Cowboys win it by a landslide. Sure Tony Romo was injured for half the season, but it still doesn’t hide the fact that they played like a bunch of individuals and not as a team.

I know I didn’t mention every team, but I knew that some of those teams I failed to mention played to my expectation. If you read this and are offended please don’t be, this is just my opinion. I would like to say pleasing things about every team but that would take the fun out of it. But if there’s one thing we all can agree on, it’s the long wait till August when preseason starts and we begin that time to pick our winning or losing fantasy football teams. (Sorry, Terry, better luck next year.) But hey, the Daytona 500 is a few weeks away and March Madness is around the corner.

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Slogans are interesting, as a matter of fact, the very word slogan is interesting. I mean who came up with this name and why does it sound like someone just got drunk and made it up. I mean slogan, really?? It sounds a lot like slur, or slow. The other words that start with the letters S and L aren’t that impressive, allusive maybe, but impressive definitely not! Allusive only because I can’t think of any other words that start with S and L right off the top of my head…

Moving on.

What if the word slogan had a slogan, what would it be? That’s like the question, if a tree falls in a forest when no one is around does it make a sound? Which is a yes, I think. If slogan had a slogan it would be, Slogan-The word that sums up the world. So in a world full of slogans I wonder what it would sound like if you had to say every slogan all the time…

Earlier today (today is the day dreams are made of) I was playing (because millions of people across the world love to play) words with friends (the word game that makes you seem smarter than you really are) and a thought (thinking – everyone’s doing it) crossed my mind that the world (the place where people come home to) is a scary place. When I sit (because standing is for losers) here and ponder (ponder is like wonder only more eloquent) my life (everything else is just death) I feel like I spend (spending – it makes saving look like a fat man with a donut) too much time (the other white meat (just wanted to see if you were still following)) playing games (games – why wouldn’t you?). That thought (just another thing you can do with your brain) entered my head (head or tails you can’t see without it) I was struck (like being hit but with vigor) with an idea (ideas are like storms of the mind), why not go for a run (running says, “I may not know how to exercise, but at least I’m doing something”). While on my run, I let my mind get carried (carrying is for the birds, get carried today!) away, I then decided that we should build (building is what men do when they are bored…) a tree house (houses are the new black).

This is just the tip of the iceberg, just imagine a world where slogans are used to describe every person in a few short letters… wait, isn’t that what facebook is doing? Crap… new idea!

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