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A few thoughts about the next post, “The Gift of Peace.”

The poem is a tribute to the U.S. Air Force officers and enlisted crew in the field on Christmas day 2023. Many launch crews, security staff, maintainers, facility managers, and cooks were on duty December 25. 

Actually those teams are on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Currently, each team is in the field for a week at a time.

This has been ongoing at Minuteman bases since the early 1960s.  Teams have been in the field continuously for 60 years defending the United States.

You may think it odd to see a post thanking members of USAF that have kept nuclear tipped ICBMs on alert around the clock for half a century showing up a couple days after I have four posts celebrating the birth of the Christ child.

There is no contradiction at all between celebrating Christ’s arrival in the world to then be killed in order to pay the penalty for sin at the same time as I celebrate those who stand alert with nuclear weapons to defend my homeland and the Western world.

A moments explanation of doctrine will show why there is no contradiction.

Left kingdom and right kingdom

Continue reading “A few thoughts on the poem “The Gift of Peace.””

The Gift of Peace

Quenten Thomas

The season now is Christmas,

A time of thankful cheer.

Peace our gift is given,

Its silence you can hear.

.

For way up in the north tier,

On plains of snowy white.

Deterrence still is working,

Each day and through the night.

.

While seldom they’re remembered,

And often times ignored.

The peace they’ve long provided,

For decades past and more.

 .

Through dry heat days of summer,

And the bitter winters gale.

The peace on earth defended,

For years it has prevailed.

 .

The work of oh so many,

Throughout these long past years.

Their standard yet unequaled,

By all their other peers.

.

While children all are nestled,

So snug and very warm.

Some troop is there protecting,

Their life from evils harm.

 .

It’s quiet on these winter nights,

The northern lights will shine.

Another blessed Christmas,

There’s Peace for all Mankind.

.

First appeared in newsletter of Association of Air Force Missileers. Used with permission of author and AAFM.

See previous post here, for a few thoughts on this poem.

It was not until about a decade ago that I finally understood the song “The Little Drummer Boy,” which is a fictional story of a little boy who could bring no gift to the newborn baby Jesus than playing on his drum.

Took me decades of listening to the song before I realized that every talent, offering, service, activity, positive action, and good deed I could ever bring to Jesus as an offering is nothing more to the creator of the universe than a little boy playing a drum.

I can give nothing, absolutely nothing, to Jesus other than my heart.

Strangely as it seems, that is all He ever wants from me.

That little thing is all He wants from you. Give Jesus your heart. He will give you riches unimaginable.

“The Little Drummer Boy” as you have not heard it before:

for KING + COUNTRY – Little Drummer Boy | LIVE from Phoenix

Not quite sure why this variation of O Come All Ye Faithful and O Holy Night moves my heart so much.  I wish it could be heard by the entire world after the gospel good news is explained and the lyrics of the songs described.

If you have heard the good news of Jesus being born so he could then die on the cross, this will bring tears to your eyes.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra – O’ Come All Ye Faithful / O’ Holy Night

Joy to the World (2017) – Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble & The Tabernacle Choir

Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let Earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing

Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns
Let all their songs employ
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy

Continue reading ““Joy to the World” – We celebrate again that Jesus bodily entered into our lives.”

Wind turbines and solar panels don’t grow on trees.

By Joshua Antonini.

Reprinted with permission of Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Wind and solar energy do not generate much electricity, but they have a great power to cloud people’s minds. It is now fairly well known that wind and solar can pose serious threats to the nation’s wildlife — from endangered right whales to tens of thousands of bird deaths each year from solar. But optimistic green energy advocates still don’t realize the many environmental impacts associated with manufacturing, maintaining, and disposing of solar panels and wind turbines.

It takes a great deal of material to produce solar panels and wind turbines. Wind and solar energy technologies collect diffuse and intermittent gusts of wind and rays of sunlight to generate electricity, which means they have a very low energy density in comparison to other generation technologies, like fossil fuels or nuclear.

Because of the diffuse nature of their fuel sources, renewables consume orders of magnitude more materials for the same electricity output, thereby causing greater environmental burdens than do more dense energy sources.

A single 100-megawatt natural gas-fired turbine about as large as a residential house will power 75,000 homes. Replacing that energy output with wind requires 20 wind turbines that occupy around 10 square miles of land, and it also needs “enormous quantities of conventional materials, including concrete, steel, and fiberglass, along with less common materials, including ‘rare earth’ elements such as dysprosium,” Mark Mills, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in a 2020 report.

Increased demands for materials leads to the first major impact: Wind and solar require massive increases in mining.

Continue reading “Clean energy isn’t clean.”

The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original. Courtesy of the National Archives.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Continue reading “Declaration of Independence”

Need to catch up on discussion on devastation caused by government policies in response to the Covid pandemic. Two articles from last year are still timely because they describe the deliberate effort expended by the public health community to destroy the reputation and create severe skepticism of anything they ever say.

7/16/22 – Brownstone Institute –Dr. Birx Praises Herself While Revealing Ignorance, Treachery, and Deceit – Presumed Doctor Deborah Birx admits in her biography that she willfully lied and deceived to push harsh lockdown. She seems quite pleased with her deceptions.

Read this article a year ago and reread it today (6/19/23). I am more staggered today than a year ago at her arrogance, ignorance, willful deception of the US president, and willful deception of the US public.

Remember this is the person that completely ignored travel restrictions and size restrictions in order to travel several states away to have a four generation Thanksgiving celebration. There was a time that you want to post to leave your state and certainly not have more than 10 people of your immediate family at any gathering of any sort.

Her goal all along was complete lockdown of the entire country for an indefinite period of time. She had no concern, nary any indication of the least bit of awareness, of the economically devastating, educationally destroying, and society crushing impact of her dictatorial feelings.

Continue reading “Public health community put lots of effort into destroying their reputation.”

On March 13, 2020, President Trump signed the order kicking off government mandated restrictions in a failed effort to slow the spread and prevent further infections. On April 10, 2023, President Biden signed an order ending the emergency.

Yes, that is one thousand one hundred twenty-three days of the promised fifteen days to slow the spread.

1,123 days is enough time to have 74 rounds of 15 days spread slowing.

As a gauge of how silly it was to hold open the ongoing emergency, the Senate passed a resolution calling on the President to end the restrictions. Vote was an overwhelming 68-23. The House passed a similar resolution by 229-197 vote.

It will take decades to count the full cost of the damage caused by all the government imposed dictats allowed in the guise of slowing the spread. Areas which need study to determine the extent of harm include lost education of children, disrupted education of college youth, declining mental health, deteriorating physical health, increased suicides, increased addictions, deteriorated supply chains, damaged economic production, soaring inflation, labor shortages, lost freedom, damaged churches, disrupted spiritual health, and drop in economic vitality.

Rap video from a few years ago showing the failed arguments for Keynesian economics and the consequences of messing around with the money supply and artificially forcing interest rates low.

Pushing down interest rates leads to mal-investment in projects that are not really good plans. When interest rates eventually rise, lots of plans need to be abandoned.

The results? “Bailouts, payouts, and machinations.”

The ‘cheap credit dog’ will come back to bite hard.

When the economy is flooded with trillions of dollars during COVID, the fully expected inflation forces the Fed to raise interest rates, in turn dropping vaue of bonds and then in turn tanking the value of the securities portfolio of every bank in the country. No wonder the FDIC and FRB think Silicon Valley is just the first bank to go.

We saw it in 2008. We are seeing it again today.

The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution by editor Edward Lengel and a collection of contributing authors is a delightful description of key fights in the battle for American liberty and freedom.

A side discussion in the text is pertinent to the ongoing debate over the Second Amendment.

The book explains every free male in the colonies from the age of 16 up to 60 was required to report annually for training as a part of the militia.

Continue reading “What is a “militia?””

The American Revolution is a delight to study. A few tidbits from Edward Lengel and the contributing authors in The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution are relevant to this blog. Some fun stuff:

• Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.
• Paying Continental soldiers in specie, that means silver.

Next post will discuss What is a “militia?”

Perseverance in face of ongoing reversals.

Author points out George Washington had more losses in battle than wins. In spite of that he led the patriot forces to victory over the greatest world power of the time.

An overarching feature that shows throughout the book is perseverance in face of trials, tribulations, and battlefield defeats.

Continue reading “Some tidbits from the American Revolution.”

If the politicians don’t start relaxing the lockdown and letting people pay their rapidly accumulating bills, bunches of people are going to take the initiative and do so on their own.

I sense there is a limited time for those in power to start loosening the extreme restrictions or people are going to start ignoring parts of the rules.

At a deeper level, the concern I have is what’s referred to as the “social contract.” Government gets its authority from consent of the governed.

If a large number of people get to the point of concluding the rules in places like California and Virginia are unnecessarily severe and are causing more health, mental, social, and economic damage than they prevent, people will conclude our leaders have broken the contract.

If we get to that point, respect for law and respect for public officials will decline. That is not a good place to go.

 

Next two articles point out a small number of people who have already reached that conclusion:

4/20/20 – Daily Wire – “Social Shredding”: Defiant Residents Grab Shovels, Dirt Bikes After Cali Authorities Dump Tons of Sand In Skateparks For ‘Social Distancing’ – Officials in San Clemente California noticed teenagers were committing the grave sin of skating in the city’s skate park. Well, that is patently unacceptable, so the city dumped 37 tons of sand into the skate park in an effort to shut down the skating. Since the park is at the beach, sand was readily available.

Well, the city officials did not take into consideration the incredible level of creativity present in humans, especially Americans.

Continue reading “The shutdown will be relaxed, one way or another.”

Some background data for oil in North Dakota provides insight for the production info.

Drilling rigs have become more productive in recent years. In the past, say before 2014, the number of rigs directly tied into production levels. Now, with a variety of technologies, such as multi-well pads for example, the drilling time is down so the wells per rig are up.

A far lower number of rigs is needed to keep new well production rolling.

Rig count since 2010:

Continue reading “Details behind North Dakota oil production.”