Recent content on Brett's Website
Something that may not be clear from my writings on this website is that I have not, in fact, been a Catholic. I have referenced the Church, the CCC, and St. Thomas Aquinas before, but have never actually been a Catholic for my almost 30 years. That has changed. On May 30, 2026 I officially came into the Catholic Church after nearly 30 years of reductionist Lutheranism, and I have never been so…
I am not an expert on prayer. Anyone with a website as bipolar as mine, jumping from hard philosophy to “Haha, backhoe go brrrr!”, cannot possibly be an expert on anything. But like any non-expert with a website from which to preach, I have some thoughts on it; hopefully they are useful and encouraging. Does God Hear our Prayer? Absolutely. If you believe in God, and understand the…
As much as I have written in the past about reading and studying, you might find it surprising that I would entitle an article “Stop Consuming Books.” I am not saying do not read, but I am saying do not consume them like a novel pastry. I speak from experience. I now realize some of my reading of great works of philosophy has been in vain, since I can hardly summarize or argue from…
Before anyone can discuss capitalism intelligently, they must divorce the notion of consumerism from capitalism. Almost all critics of capitalism are in fact making a straw-man out of it, and that straw-man is consumerism. They believe they defeat capitalism while only really defeating consumerism, a much easier feat. These two notions are not the same thing. Capitalism is little more than the…
As I have posted in the past, I like old vehicles. Apparently, not only do I like old rustbuckets falling apart for cheap, I also like them heavy. 14,000 Lbs heavy. Before your very eyes is a fresh Ford 555B Backhoe. No, I don’t need it; no, it isn’t part of the minimalist lifestyle ; and yes, I love this heavy metal mess. I picked this piece of machinery up for an astonishing $5,000.…
Disclaimer Frankly, I’m still a beginner. I have written what I have written mostly to inspire you to lift weights, not coach you. I don’t know everything, and I don’t know if any of what I have written will work for you. You be the judge; I’m no expert. But I do stand by this: you should lift. But First, Why? I don’t want to give you the usual schlock about why you…
Because I simply do not have enough things with wheels, I bought another car. Should start right up! As you can see, my taste and quality of vehicles has changed only for the better. No title? No brakes? No run? No trim? No X? What’s not to love? In case you have no clue what this car is, it is a 1963 Mercury Comet S-22, an early 60s compact car. It is the much prettier sister to the Ford…
When it comes to cars and other mechanical activities, the temptation to get things working right is to just throw money at the problem until it goes away. I have heard it called the “Parts Cannon,” and today I will share an egregious case-in-point. Almost $2000 Later I recently helped a lady with her 2011 Ford Escape. It had developed some electrical issues that prevented it from…
As I posted previously, my Ford 3.03 transmission was toasted. Between several bad syncros (causing a heck of a grinding noise), and the shifter being junk, I thought it best to swap in another transmission from the junkyard than trying to fix the old 3-speed. I went to a local metal recycler and asked if I could look over what vehicles he had. To my surprise, he had at least 5 1970s Ford trucks…
The above heading is often declared by mid-wit philosophers as if they are speaking of something truly remarkable and profound. Let us dissect this idea, and show that it is complete nonsense. Evolved for the Spear? The spear is a truly ancient weapon, long predating written history. Would anyone dare argue that, because we are thousands of years ahead of the spear, we are more…
There is nothing more hopeless than suffering from ignorance. At least a man who knows his fate in a given matter, no matter how grim, can cope with the consequences which he will incur. And somehow, that dramatic opening relates to my F-100’s brakes. This nightmare all started with my rear drums. I replaced the brake shoes and did a significant amount of learning how these kinds of brakes…
One of my favorite things to do is make something useful out of something useless, whether that be my rustbucket F-100, old wood from broken furniture, or cutting small trees to make fence posts. My latest exploit in this field is turning an old, ugly, awful shelf into a chick brooder box. I do not have a picture of the shelf before I tore it apart, but it was dark brown with flimsy trim, cheap…
A curious quality of being human is that we are never satisfied. The food is never satiating, the sex never good enough, nor the reward for things accomplished never great enough. In fact, for instance, when we consume large quantities of food, or decadent foods in search of satisfaction, all it leads to is sickness. The same goes for other earthly pleasures. Now, before anyone thinks I advocate…
Ask the average person and they will tell you that the internet is superior to plain books in every way. Content online does not need to go through a publishing house in order to reach people, anyone can do it, and online content can be altered as needed in the future. The internet is indeed far more malleable than books, like a blacksmith working his iron, and that is precisely why books are…
I have half-heartedly hunted for a few years now, but I finally put some real effort into it, and with a lot of luck, it paid off. The Kill Firstly, I had to find a likely place to find deer in the woods behind my house. At first I sat in a deer stand on the dirt road through the woods because I had seen them pass through on perpendicular game trails. I had no luck here even with bait, so I moved…
I recently realized that the majority of works that I have been reading are quite dry and boring to the average reader. That being said, that does not mean the book in question is bad, just that it is written in such a way that does not satisfy the human desire for a little drama or narrative. In fact, some boring writers really have the most important things to say, but the technical language…
Is there any concept more misunderstood than freedom? And, more to the point, freedom, in our modern degenerate sense, appears to be little more than license which is not a good. License, in short, is the undisciplined abuse of freedom, or even the abuse of free will. Man has no “right” to be licentious as he does to own property or hold office. Instances of licentiousness are often…
Since I have a vehicle that only gets about 12 miles to the gallon driving like a grandpa, I decided to look into what vehicles are very fuel efficient. I then discovered the magic of motorcycles. “But Safety!” Yes, a motorcyclist is inherently more vulnerable in the event of an accident however, a good motorcyclist is far more alert to the possibility of an accident than car drivers…
In the modern world, we are regularly bombarded with approbations to not be ashamed of whatever actions we commit. In many ways, we can blame psychology for this since it has done much to “animalize” man (Think Skinner and other Behaviorists) since its inception rather than “manify” the animal as in past centuries. (Perhaps rather than blame psychology, it would be better…
In response to many anti-consumer practices effected by large companies, many a naive capitalist will respond with, “Well, you should vote with your dollar! If you don’t like ABC Corporation, just don’t buy their stuff!” That seems sensible enough on a small scale, but the rules change once we begin speaking of enormous capital. Let us therefore discuss the way in which the…
I have a friend who made a very simple and concise point about “the fourth of July:” “Don’t call it “The Fourth of July!” Call it what it is: Independence Day. You don’t call Christmas the twenty-fifth of December!” He makes a good yet subtle point: by calling it “The Fourth of July,” we neuter the holiday by removing its meaning. Without…
As a child, I did not understand this commandment, and frankly not many adults who taught me it understood it. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” – Exodus 20:7 RSV Now I have come to understand what the meaning of vanity is, so the above commandment becomes quite clear. If we take His…
While I have already written on the topic, I think it is necessary to further show issues with any sort of skeptical doctrine. By skepticism I do not mean disbelief in God or any other narrow sense of the word, but doubt in general. If at first we begin, in our philosophy, to doubt things, where can we rationally draw the line? If I may reveal my conclusion early, I do not think there is a…
Here we go again! Due to my ignorance, I had to tear out my 1973 F100’s front-end yet again to replace the kingpins, because the passenger’s side was seized up and causing problems steering. After doing this project twice now, I thought I would provide a guide on how to do the whole front-end with pictures and detailed descriptions for those in need. This is not the easiest job on the…
I have wanted to write this particular article for some years, but have not been properly equipped to do so until now; further, there are hardly any good write-ups about this topic on the internet at all. As such, I wish to present my case against the “Enlightenment” deistic view of God that should fill this void and help those who may wish to defend themselves against deistic…
I have done many things on this old F100 that would be considered difficult jobs, but nothing compares to the simple afternoon job that is replacing the radius arm and axle pivot bushings. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The General Steps If you attempt this job, be very liberal with rust penetrators like PB Blaster, WD-40, or Kroil. I also recommend you do this one side at a time and…
This is my documents page which will be the source for some documents and ebooks that I either find interesting or will refer to in articles and essays. Of course, computer reading sucks so I do not recommend seriously reading in this format; these are mostly for reference. If you use the Zathura reader, you can invert the colors with CTRL + R. Neat trick that saves your eyes. Summa Theologica
Introduction to this Essay I was contacted by a reader who proposed that human free will was just an extension of the Divine Will. There is a small sense in which that is correct, but overall I am convinced to the contrary and shall thoroughly explain why it is not so. I consider this point of inquiry too important to share in mere email and want to share it with all who may find it interesting.…
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about money, what it is good for, what it is not good for, and its relationship to wealth. This is far from some economic treatise, but what I think is a common sense way of looking at money. Money is Wealth in Potency Money, in itself, is not wealth , but can become wealth. To have, say, $100,000 cash has a great deal of potential, but no actual wealth; without…
More successes than ever before and only one big disappointment for today. Vacuum Problem Solved! It has nagged me ever since I bought a vacuum gauge that the motor wouldn’t pull more than 15 inches at a reasonable idle. I came across this article which explains in great detail why you should probably use full manifold vacuum over ported vacuum. I had been using ported and that’s why…
My name is Brett Lindler. I live in South Carolina where I play organ/piano at a local church, fix computers and other consumer electronics, teach piano lessons, and many other activities. I obtained a Bachelor’s in Music at Furman University where I studied piano. To really break down all that I do, I am a tinkerer, tinkering on anything I think I can make better. My current project is…
An issue with skeptics of free will and other such topics is that they make some unwarranted assumptions to justify their two-cause universe that are ultimately contradictory. The modern skeptic is more of a Diet Skeptic than a true skeptic. First, Prove That Something Is Illusory Or, for that matter, prove anything at all As Luke Smith frames it in a recent video, many so-called thinkers posit a…
It is no secret that I enjoy tinkering on cars and trucks, but despite that, I am not much of a hotrodder. I don’t care that my truck can blast past most things on the road; I drive it as responsibly as I can, obeying the speed limits, avoiding stupid mistakes, and more importantly, avoiding sketchy drivers. But there is something I have come to realize since I started driving that old…
One of my occupations is as a musician. I teach piano to several students, and play the piano and organ at a local church. I have written some original music that I have decided to share on this site for free. Some of the music has midi, some does not because I have lost their digital copies, but have retained the physical copies and scanned them. All of these tunes were typeset using Musescore ,…
In contrast to the overly positive views often presented towards the word ‘yes’, I think we underestimate the power of the word ’no.’ Of course, this is not to say that ’no’ is always a good thing, such as using it to shirk responsibilities, but it does a fine job of differentiating us from animalistic drives. Saying ‘No’ to the Animal If we were to…
I wish to assert this point: in order to gain faith in God, you must first divest yourself of faith in everything else. Reason, the God that Failed (I must parenthetically note something of an important distinction. I do not support the abandoning of reason, but I do not support reason in the way our “Enlightenment” “philosophers” have. To consider human reason the only…
It is entirely too easy to hate. Many of us, in our heart of hearts, despite what we may do to curb it, still stubbornly hate something or someone. While resolving personal hatred can be challenging, it is not nearly as difficult as resolving the generalized hatred of humanity known as misanthropy. Misanthropy makes it impossible to enjoy life correctly; it leaves the misanthrope to seek hope only…
Oh boy, do I have a fun little adventure to describe, but that must wait until I detail some of the work done on the green machine. Heli-Coils are cool In my quest to get a decent vacuum from the motor, I noticed that my carburetor to intake manifold bolt holes were stripped in one spot. I purchased this neat tool called a heli-coil that can fix that by 1. tapping the old hole, destroying the old…
If you’re anything like me, you find yourself struggling to justify old yet juvenile libertarian opinions once held but now condemned. A classic example of one such foolish opinion would be the libertarian idea that you should be allowed to consume whatever drugs you so please because muh freedumb . Responsible Consumption Firstly, let us discuss what I am going to call “responsible…
Today, I must critique one of those sacred cows of learning that causes the average intellectual to cringe; that is, of course, reading. Before I begin I must say that books are a good thing in the world, because they allow easy disemination of knowledge and stories that could otherwise be lost to time. My chief issue with reading is really the same issue as with videogames, television, and other…
Part of why my old site is defunct and why I have been so infrequent in posts is due to this little project. Specifications 347 stroker motor 3-speed manual transmission Edelbrock #1806 carburetor No-name glasspacks for mufflers (lol) 2WD I bought this old 1973 Ford F100 truck in non-running condition for $2000 and have since gotten it running with a few caveats. Due to some issues I was having…
I think many will agree that there is a such thing as sexual immorality and that it is rampant. I suppose if one were a total nihilist then there is no such thing, but considering the importance of sex in the procreation of mankind, I think it is illogical to dismiss sex as unimportant and meaningless in and of itself. Let us provide a little deductive reasoning to illustrate what morally…