Bible reading

I glanced across the aisle at church today and watched a three year old in her mom's lap. She almost made it to one of our Christmas cards some years ago when she was in the womb. She would have been a fabulous subject, but a different painting of Bob's won out. She had a pew Bible on her legs and was quietly studying the pages, intently moving her little fingers across the page, nodding her head and moving her lips. Perhaps she didn't know the words but in a family of 11 she's got those values down pat, like sharing, forgiving, mercy, justice, helping, caring, loving, trusting and looking to the future.

Fear of Covid is alive and well, except among politicians

Fear of Covid still lives. I have friends and relatives still getting the shot. Plus, many younger parents have developed a fear of useful, life-saving vaccines.

What stays with me is my bewilderment of how that pandemic and its results seem to have been forgotten by both political parties and all the institutions that were affected--particularly education and religion.

 
Donald Trump pushed too hard for a vaccine so he could be a hero, in my opinion, and he was at the starting gate of the closings and flinging money at us with CARES ( Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act), which corrupted and compromised every aspect of our culture. Fear of Covid put Biden in the White House (in my opinion) after he had previously castigated Trump's vaccine effort and promised he had a plan to stop the spread (he didn't; no one did). The people fell for that after being terrorized by the media which hated Trump with constant fake rates and numbers.

 
Then CARES + Biden turned out to extend the closing of our economy with a crippling mandate which hardly touched the rich and powerful Democrats and got Republicans fired or cancelled. Covid cases soared so that by the end of 2021 the rate was higher than under Trump even with the vaccine. Biden buddies destroyed the economic gains made under Trump in his first term, but I think Trump moved too quickly with a science he didn't understand, then his advisors were blacklisted under Biden.

 
Both presidents fell for Dr. Fauci and his gain of function lies allowed him celebrity status. Both presidents ignored years of research on the mental health effects of locking people up and fell for the masking and distancing lies. IMO, the old folks should have stayed home and the kids should have been in school.

We're still paying for this, particularly the children who lost about 2 years of learning. Something like it but different could happen again. Where are the lessons learned?

BTW, do you know that Peter Daszak (who got the grant money from Fauci for the gain of function research in Wuhan) has a new gig on global health and is seeking donations? https://naturehealthglobal.org/nhg-signs-5-year-contract.../

A follow up on VBS at UALC

 This note was sent to the congregation:

"In the midst of June's heat wave, UALC had the opportunity to welcome people from all across Columbus to the Oasis of God's kingdom that we call our church home. Each day, nearly 240 adult and teen volunteers were able to welcome about 650 children and their families to Mill Run for Young Kids and Big Kids VBS. From greeting participants in the parking lot to singing on the stage, each volunteer role played a huge part in welcoming these families into the house of the Lord and assuring them that we could dwell in this space with our good shepherd forever!

During our week of VBS we had the opportunity to see a special kind of spiritual growth form in the lives of the children who attended Big Kids VBS. They worked on memorizing ten different verses from David's portion of the Psalter (including the six verses of Psalm 23), heard David's story with a fresh perspective on his journey from shepherd to king, learned how his story points forward to the work of Jesus Christ, and explored the very character of our Lord as they heard Jesus' invocation of the title "good shepherd." Conversations sparked all over the place about trusting God as we walk through difficult things, being able to go to him in prayer, trusting Jesus to walk with us into school buildings, onto soccer fields, or in friendships and family relationships.

While all the excitement of Big Kids swarmed the building, 180 preschoolers and their parents were singing, dancing, and shouting Jesus' name in the Fellowship Hall! Our Young Kids VBS program was full and thriving this year. Each morning, kids from birth to five years filed into the building with their parents and guardians to be led by 22 amazing teens in songs, crafts, games, and worship. They saw the story of King David played out on stage, heard the gospel over and over, and had the words of scripture sewn into their hearts throughout the week. There were many parents there who had participated in VBS as a teen or as a child, and they brought their kids to experience the fun. There were also many parents there who don't have a church home or didn't know the gospel, and they got an invitation into Jesus' family. After YKVBS each day, preschool parents gathered on the playground for free iced coffee and play time, as well as time to connect with each other and our church staff.

One of the best parts of the week was watching the confidence of the preschoolers grow each day. In the first two days of learning songs and motions, they generally stayed close by their grown up's side. But by the end of the week, there was a huge group of preschoolers gathered together at the edge of the stage, dancing their hearts out, confident in their worship, shouting out "He's my good, good shepherd!" It was a beautiful picture of heaven and the uninhibited worship that our hearts and bodies are made for."

The firing of the first Librarian, Carla Hayden

I just found out that Trump fired Carla Hayden the Librarian of Congress in May. In her bio she's always called the first woman and first black to ever hold that position. I was thinking she was also the first librarian to ever hold that position. It was never considered important enough to have an actual librarian in that position. Well, since it's always been a political position, she was also appointed by Obama, was a Democrat and is 72 years old. That she's a Democrat is not odd, since probably 95% of librarians are very liberal and routinely support the far left issues. ALA is an advocacy group, but not for children, or reading or education. Trump didn't fire her during his first term, so I'm guessing she's said some unflattering things about him and his policies. You have freedom of speech to speak ill of the boss, and he has the freedom to choose someone else for the job. It's a titular position and someone else is doing the actual work. In the past it's been a position for a scholar, not a real librarian.

"On Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Hayden of putting "inappropriate books for children" in the library, which receives a copy of every book that is copyrighted in the United States each year. She also claimed the librarian had done "quite concerning things ... in the pursuit of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), and "did not fit the needs of the American people." "
(Newsweek)

However, if Ms. Leavitt said this, it isn't accurate. Works are protected automatically, without copyright notice or registration. If LC received a copy of every book that is copyrighted in the U.S. there wouldn't be a building large enough to hold them.

"Copyright protectable works receive instant and automatic copyright protection at the time that they are created. U.S. law today does not require placing a notice of copyright on the work or registering the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. The law provides some important benefits if you do use the notice or register the work, but you are the copyright owner even without these formalities." (Copyright quick guide, Columbia University Libraries) If I write a letter to my friend or draw a horse on a postcard, you don't have a right to use it.

 
Perhaps she meant Ms. Hayden was putting in the Library of Congress children's material that couldn't be read aloud in front of Congress because it was disgusting and salacious?

Do Democrats know what their party supports?

Democrats have decided to support

Anti-Semitism
Hamas
Terrorism by South American gangs
Open borders
Property destruction
Anti-women in sports and safe spaces
Racist DEI policies
Bloated and corrupt government departments
Late term abortion
Rogue judges
Mutilation of children

rs

Kamala's last stand--Hitler

So Kamala's last trick is. . . wait for it. . . Hitler. Trump is a fascist. Hitler in an apron being taught how to use a deep fryer. That's all she's got. If he were a fascist, I don't know how Big Tech and Big Pharma shut him up and shut him out while he was the president. Kicked off twitter and not allowed to say Ivermectin.

 
He pretty much let the governors do their job, and each state acted accordingly. He didn't take over. That's the constitution. (Ohio's Republican governor was just wishy washy, and I'm not sure what he did.) For abortion, he returned it to the states--and don't think that turned out well and there are now more abortions than before! He appointed 3 originalists (follow the constitution) to the Supreme Court. How is that fascist, Kamala? Even the late great Ruth Bader Ginsberg who was pro-abortion said it was never a good decision (no law was ever passed)--it was too far-reaching and too sweeping, and it gave pro-life activists fodder for the fight.

Tim Walz was more a fascist during the George Floyd riots than Trump was. He just let the brown shirts go crazy and burn down the cities. Kamala Harris when a DA confiscated guns and threatened in 2007 to have random police checks of private homes--a clear constitutional violation. She's the fascist in fact--not in theory.

 
There are about 8,000 minor females (aka children) who've had their breasts removed just for the political advocacy of an insane, demented group. It's an act of sexual violence worse than any child sex ring an Epstein or Weinstein could dream up. They don't really fit as Marxists, tribal gurus or populists. Unless you'd factor in the anti-family, anti-God people on the left. And again, that would be Harris, not Trump. There again, this is a local issue, and I'm not sure under which administration that particular viral movement had the most influence. I don't remember Trump appointing men pretending to be women to high government positions, but he could have. We know which party is LGBTQ occupied, although I can't figure out how the T figures in on that. It really makes no sense to say Gay is natural and good and then try to mutilate the body of a child who is confused about biology.

But politics isn't always about common sense. Common sense does tell you based on Trump's experience and the laws Kamala's already violated, that she fits her own narrative.

Reading to children

The word gap in early childhood is important. A child with a Mom who reads to her may hear a million more words than one who doesn't have that advantage.  I have many happy memories of Mom reading to my brother and me in the big burgundy late 40s chair with arms large enough to hold two children of school age (the chair, not hers). I can probably even remember the books. We didn't know what an advantage she was giving us even though we lived in a rural town of 1,000 with all 12 grades in one building. No amount of DEI later in life or Head Start as toddlers can surpass a mother who reads to her children. I remember the Little Engine that Could, the Ugly Duckling, and the Wee wee Mannie and the big big Coo to this day. Those stories had an ideology and lessons, great illustrations and challenging vocabulary plus Mom did great accents.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190404074947.htm?

Children and exercise--the gym or outdoors?

I go to Lifetime Fitness (I call it the gym) about 5x a week. Sometimes parents bring their children--I think they need to be 12 to be a guest. They are well-behaved and no trouble--but I do feel sorry for them, especially the young girls who are probably already a little over concerned about their bodies.

No one wants to hear that we knew better in the "old days" but here it is. I hated school PE classes, I admit it. I did avoid all organized summer sports although the town had community leagues. But I certainly had a lot of exercise. Watching a little kid on one of those machines today I recalled:

• climbing trees
• riding horses
• biking on no-speed, manual brake bicycles
• playing hop-scotch
• raking leaves in the fall
• mowing the lawn in the summer
• pulling weeds in the garden in the summer
• digging dandelions in the yard in the spring
• running during recess
• swinging on the monkey bars in the school yard
• roller skating with strap on skates on the sidewalks
• catching tadpoles and frogs in creeks
• playing softball in the street with neighborhood kids
• delivering newspapers on a morning route
• running just because
• and we walked because our mean mothers wouldn't drive us everywhere we wanted to go!

Most of these with the exception of newspaper delivery were social activities--done with friends or a group.

Thoughts on the upcoming vote in Ohio--Matt. 18:1-9

In Sunday School today we were looking at Matthew 18:1-9 and other verses. Christians in Ohio are divided on what to do about Issue 1 on Tuesday. In fact, Christians are downright hostile towards each other on this issue. A look at these verses could speak to that.

First, Jesus sets a small child in their midst when his disciples (who seem to be slow learners) ask about who is the greatest in his Kingdom. Children in the ancient world had no standing unlike today when entire households and several generations will focus their lives and wellbeing around children and grandchildren, lavishing time and wealth on them. Jesus essentially told them to be needy, powerless and marginalized if they truly wanted status in the Kingdom. Think about it. Who is more needy, powerless and marginalized than an unborn child?

Second, Jesus then goes on to use hyperbole in showing what happens to those who would cause one of the little ones (his followers) to stumble. Really graphic and cruel--being drowned with a heavy weight attached to the neck, having limbs chopped off or eyes poked out. Again, in the ancient world, the disabled and blind would not have much social status.

 
Third, although Jesus is not referencing abortion, the cruel suffering depicted in his hyperbole, is real life and anguish for the unborn in the midst of an abortion. Right here in Ohio. Here in America. Limbs cut off and sometimes scissors jabbed into the skull to make the head small enough so the child is "still born," and not alive at birth. Late term abortion is rare in the U.S.--about 10,000 a year--some say less, some say more. That's a small city of dismembered babies!

 
When Dr. Kermit Gosnell was tried a decade ago for murdering babies in late term abortions who could have survived, only a few minutes (13 minutes and 30 seconds for a 58 day trial) of the grisly testimony ever made it to broadcast news. There will be Christians going to the polls on Tuesday who have no idea what they are voting for, enshrining abortion for any reason at any stage of the pregnancy in our Constitution. But even worse, there will be Christians who do know, yet still cling to the lie it's a "woman's right."

30 plus years of smut for children

I came across a folder of letters today and found one I'd written to Chrysler in December 2009 praising my new Town and Country. But that wasn't the point.  I was chastising the corporation/group/CEO for being a donor to GLSEN, an organization for LGBTQ+ children--or pushing and promoting the gay lifestyle to children. So, you see, this corruption of our children goes way back. GLSEN was about 20 years old by then (created by teachers). My specific complaint to Chrysler was that GLSEN "produces a list of pornographic recommended books for children. I've read some excerpts on the internet, and it's truly disgusting. Do you really think fisting and fellatio need to be part of elementary school education?" I then included the internet link. Apparently, it flew out of my mind, and my next van was also a Chrysler!

I looked at GLSEN's front page today (carries a warning) and didn't see Chrysler, but I did see Walt Disney, Target (of course--it's been a real leader in attacking all manner of values and traditions), Wells Fargo, Pet Smart, Gucci, YouTube, New Balance, Amazon and many others

Remember please, those children GLSEN was corrupting with the help of major corporations for the last 30+ years are the adults now occupying jobs in academe and the corporate world. Which is why there is such a tsunami of this nonsense.

Enjoy the holiday.

 I took a wrong turn today and drove through a neighborhood I probably hadn't seen in 20 years. The small houses I remembered had either been remodeled grandly, or torn down and replaced and all the empty lots now had mini-mansions. Then I saw something that really warmed my heart; two young girls were roller skating on the sidewalk, laughing and having the best time. The younger one was looking up to the older. The neighborhood had changed, but kids hadn't.

This is how we did it in the 1940s-50s.  The base could be lengthened so you could pass them on to the next kid.  It would hurt when the shoe clip would slip and you'd go flying into the grass.

New World Bank reports life time earnings loss from effects of Covid

 I find it ironic (or not) that the very world organizations that our own CDC slavishly followed are now concerned about the fall into poverty and loss of lifetime earnings in the middle class due to Covid regulations that destroyed years of critical schooling.

Although this publication is dated 2023, there were earlier reports from 2021 that raised concern. Did that stop Fauci or Biden? Heck No. https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/human-capital/publication/collapse-recovery-how-covid-19-eroded-human-capital-and-what-to-do-about-it I know exactly what they'll do about it, and I'm not even a clever bureaucrat (although I was a librarian). Taxes will be raised, but only companies with high ESG scores will be able to exist. Everyone and every agency will have to be woke so that the effects of the pandemic can be overcome. We'll get hammered with more climate lies, more CRT and more blame if we don't buy the left's current hysteria.

If you read this carefully, you won't be able to tell if this was caused by the virus, the vaccines, or the lockdowns. But because very few children became ill or died, we all know the #1 problem was the lockdown which governments all over the world used to assume more power. 

Gun deaths among kids rose 50%

Gun deaths among U.S. kids rose 50% from 2019 to 2021 | Pew Research Center

A discussion on gun deaths among children under 18 with friends last night promoted this search, and as I suspected, by far this is a young male problem. The Nashville Christian school case is one of the few I can remember where a female was the shooter, and we still haven't learned if she was on the testosterone treatment because transgenderism has become such a political bombshell. One other I remember from maybe 15 years ago was a young woman killing her dissertation committee.

Quotes from the Pew report:

"Boys, for example, accounted for 83% of all gun deaths among children and teens in 2021. Girls accounted for 17%."

"Those ages 12 to 17 accounted for 86% of all gun deaths among children and teens in 2021, while those 6 to 11 accounted for 7% of the total, as did those 5 and under."

"In 2021, 46% of all gun deaths among children and teens involved Black victims, even though only 14% of the U.S. under-18 population that year was Black. Much smaller shares of gun deaths among children and teens in 2021 involved White (32%), Hispanic (17%) and Asian (1%) victims."

(Note, only statistics for Hispanic children reflect % of population.)

"In 2021, a large majority of gun deaths involving Black children and teens (84%) were homicides, while 9% were suicides. Among White children and teens, by contrast, the majority of gun deaths (66%) were suicides, while a much smaller share (24%) were homicides."

Suicides among white Americans are always at a higher percentage than other groups--I believe the highest rate of suicides is for white males over 85 and the next highest is the 74-85 group. This is a tragedy our media (and society) pay little attention to.

Also, as noted in the URL, the pandemic lockdown contributed to more than just lost years of schooling. For all we hear about school shootings, schools are still the safest place for children to be. For far too many their own homes and neighborhoods are not healthy places. Yet our government's--from federal to local--poorly conceived lust for power to having everyone be vaccinated and isolated instead of just the vulnerable and elderly has led to a 50% rise in childhood gun deaths, many suicides.

In my opinion, and my Christian belief, having mothers demand the right to kill their own children up through the 9th month of pregnancy (and beyond according to a new law proposed in New York) has not set us up with a good foundation for respecting the lives of children.

The statistics I mentioned in our discussion for homicides of children under 5 comes from a government report; but all homicides, even those for children, dropped drastically after the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill, now much maligned by liberals. Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008 (ojp.gov)

United Nations wants sex with children to be justified in law

“Principle 16” of the global body’s March report, released for International Women’s Day, lays out the basis for what the U.N. considers “consensual sexual conduct.” It says:

The enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacity of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them. Pursuant to their evolving capacities and progressive autonomy, persons under 18 years of age should participate in decisions affecting them, with due regard to their age, maturity, and best interests, and with specific attention to non-discrimination guarantees.

Failing to Create Brotherhood of Man, UN Promotes Sex With Children (dailysignal.com)

Questions of the day--leaked documents, medical forms that lie and half naked women

1) Is the whole leaked document scandal going away? No one gets fired, no one impeached? What they seem [DoD and Sec of State and Justice Dept] to report now is that they don't know how many are out there, or how they were "stolen." And will they never address that the government lied to the American people and our allies about everything? So, they've put a poor shmuck in prison, but won't address their own crimes?

2) I had a medical appointment today. Am I the only one disgusted with the forms we sign to get medical care these days? Here's my letter to the company, and I'm not giving names for obvious reasons (I need my doctor).

"Today I was handed a clip board with a form to check for accuracy and learned that WXYZ doesn’t know my biological sex even though I've been a client since 1996 (the year it organized). That box was filled in by your staff as “unknown.” There was no option for male/female. Maybe in California that transagenda/ gender fluid nonsense goes over, but not here in central Ohio where we know the science and know the damage done to children who submit to surgery, hormones and bad advice. We also know that in the U.S. about .01% of the citizens identify as transgender, so why are you forcing their delusion on the other 99.99%?"

3) Women's arms. At the TV news desk, the men are in suits and ties, the women have naked arms; on HGTV when men are in sensible work clothes tearing down walls and installing plumbing, the women have naked arms; in the beer ads when men are climbing mountains with arms covered by shirts, women's arms are naked. Why do these two, giggling-like teenagers, FBI agents kneeling at a BLM riot have naked arms? Is this sexy? To me, all these half naked women look like they aren't ready for prime time.

Children in restaurants

On Facebook, sometimes people toss out a question that thousands respond to. Today I noticed this one from a minor celebrity (I remember he made a movie about 15 years ago):

Honest question #603:

"Is there anyone out there in FB-Land who would like to try and defend the practice of going to a nice, quiet restaurant and allowing a child (or oneself) to watch a movie on a tablet (or phone) with the volume turned up LOUD for all nearby to hear (if they want to or not)? So loud that that those sitting near you can no longer hear the house music?

In my sphere, this seems to be happening with increasing frequency. Is this becoming an epidemic, or… is it just me? Is this just the new normal? Just curious, please feel free to rebuke me at will… I am all ears, truly…"

My response:  I haven't had that experience, but I do remember taking our toddlers to restaurants occasionally (early 1970s), and other customers stopping by our table complimenting us on their behavior. One man at Friendly's on a Sunday morning after church (who ran a different restaurant) actually picked up our tab because he'd seen so many poorly behaved children at his restaurant. So, it must have been the same back then, but not with our family.

Obesity in children--drugs and surgery?

Since drugs and surgery are working so well for the wallets of medical centers and Big Pharma for "treating" gender confusion in children, now "they" (probably 2 people with a government grant) want the same treatment for children who are overweight or obese. "They" want to skip right over stop eating garbage and get off your butt, and go right to surgery. Children don't buy the family's groceries, adults do that. And really, how many people who've had that drastic surgery as adults have slipped back after 5 or 10 years? It's a very hard and difficult decision, but now they want to get their hands and knives on children who can't fight back.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wellness/american-academy-of-pediatrics-shredded-for-pushing-surgery-to-fight-childhood-obesity-questionable-at-best/ar-AA169xkb

I sure hope there are doctors with common sense who push back. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" needs to be brought back and brushed off.

Immunity debt

" Immunity debt is not a new idea, though the specific coinage is fairly recent (and some experts bicker over the specifics of what the phrase does and does not mean). Its painful lesson has been learned by American honeymooners who drink the tap water in Cancún, Nigerian Americans who skip malaria prophylaxis while visiting their cousins outside Abuja, and unvaccinated seniors who were hospitalized from COVID-19 while their boosted peers suffered a mere head cold. At its heart, immunity debt is Immunology 101: Hosts whose immune systems haven’t been properly primed are more prone to infection and severe disease."

It seems there's a price to pay for all that unnecessary masking of children the last 2.5 years.

https://slate.com/technology/2022/12/immunity-debt-explainer-rsv-covid-masking.html

Joe Biden worsens the danger for children--Why do Democrats support him?

 " . . . when a school strives to create a “safe, welcoming, and inclusive” environment for transgender-identified students, it greatly increases the chance that children who might otherwise go through a temporary stage of identity exploration or confusion will reject their bodies in favor of a risky experimental medical protocol."

The School-to-Clinic Pipeline | City Journal (city-journal.org)

What happened to academic freedom? Wokeism

"As an evolutionary biologist, I am quite used to attempts to censor research and suppress knowledge. But for most of my career, that kind of behavior came from the right. In the old days, most students and administrators were actually on our side; we were aligned against creationists. Now, the threat comes mainly from the left. . .We each have our own woke tipping point—the moment you realize that social justice is no longer what we thought it was, but has instead morphed into an ugly authoritarianism." Laura Maroja

If you are a Democrat, vote like your life depends on it, because it does. Your party has let the margins and marginals take over. CRT and gendermandering in schools, millions of illegals storming the border, raging inflation, Americans held in foreign jails, abandoning our allies and principals in a Biden Bug Out in Afghanistan, children locked out of their schools and losing 2 grade levels, shortage of medical personnel and hospitals closing because of early retirements due to power struggles and your anti-science swampy government, fentanyl grown in China flooding over the border, demands to kill the unborn up to the day of birth, incompetent people in the White House, gaslighting so bad we could light up and heat Europe for the winter, and a media with no morals and no boundaries protecting politicians. What have I overlooked? Your complicity in destroying the best economy and strongest border because you didn't like Trump's snarky attitude? For that you sold us down the river?