The revival at Asbury

There's a revival going on at Asbury University in Kentucky. No one knows why or how, no planners came to town and set up the venue with rock bands, room reservations for seminars, housing and food. God arrived and did his work and the young people prayed. It has happened before--at least 4 times in the 20th century at Asbury. People are coming from all over the nation, some from other countries. These are young people who have had incredible challenges from our culture all their lives--all manner of evil available at the touch of a finger on a small screen; from k-12 and beyond their education system has filled their minds with fears and anxiety about the planet; the entertainers have wooed them with all manner of gross and disgusting images, thoughts, and words; their parents' material luxury has stunted their appreciation for work and merit; not even their science classes in college are safe as they have been lied to about their sexuality and ethnicity. If I were in college, I'd be on my knees, too. Oh praise God, I can join them right here at my desk. Pray especially for their protection, as Satan and his helpers will certainly not be pleased with this.

Isaiah 40: 28-31

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary,
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.

https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/paul-prather/article272483797.html

https://thebaptistpaper.org/god-is-moving-10-observations-from-asbury-revival/

The old lady blogger

My New Year's resolutions are usually for one month--then I'm on to something else--perhaps it will be poetry? I may try to do Fly Lady for a month. I have a lot of things to throw out, and that's a good method.

In March 2007 I wrote this, "The Lady Blogger's Comforts" being lifted from Robert Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts." If you've read Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll does a parody of this, "Father William."

My version, The Lady Blogger's Comforts

You are old, Lady Blogger, the young man cried,
The brown locks which are left should be grey;
You are hale, Lady Blogger, a hearty old gal,
Now tell me the reason, I pray.

In my twenties thirties, Lady Blogger replied,
I remember'd that youth would fly fast,
And abused not my health and my vigour at first,
That I never might need them at last.

You are old, Lady Blogger, the young twit cried,
And pleasures with youth pass away;
And yet you lament not the days that are gone,
Now tell me the reason, I pray.

In my forties fifties, Lady Blogger replied,
I remember'd those days could not last;
I thought of the future, whatever I did,
That I never might grieve for the past.

You are old, Lady Blogger, the rude kid cried,
And life must be hastening away;
You are cheerful, and love to write about it all,
Now tell me the reason, I pray.

I am cheerful, young man, Lady Blogger replied,
Let the cause your attention engage;
In the days of my youth I remember'd my God
And he has not forgotten my age.

The notes say that Southey wrote "Old Man's Comfort" in 1799 at the age of 24. He died when he was 70.

A hand written copy of Southey's poem is in the Morgan Library and Museum, https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/alice/12 and our book club in January will be reading "The Personal Librarian," about a black woman passing for white who helped build that library, Belle da Costa Greene.

Letter to a promoter for an interview

As my friends and family know, I've been writing this blog for almost 20 years (began October 2003). That's how I met some nice people whom I now follow on Facebook. So, I get offers to review books and do interviews. I did review some books, but I don't anymore, and have republished some canned interviews. Sometimes I get snarky and write back my opinions. I have no idea if anyone reads them. The one I received on Monday, January 17, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day wanted to let me know that young people aren't educated about MLK Jr. because "only 81%" knew about his "I've got a dream speech," and "only 82%" knew about the March on Washington. I think that's fantastic--they probably don't know the year their parents were born, or what happened on July 4. So, here's my response.

Dear XXXX

You’re not making a good case. Considering how LITTLE anyone, let alone youth, know about our history, if 81% know about the “I have a dream speech,” that’s fantastic! I know some who graduated from high school in 1986. One day I asked them a fairly simple question, "Which came first WWII or Vietnam War?" and they didn’t know! That’s the level of history education in our country, and we live in a great school district with high scores. What makes you think this is a lack of resources? I’ve seen Martin Luther’s statue on the internet identified as Martin Luther King! Our young people may know who King is but have never heard of Martin Luther. How many know Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican? Or that there were over 200 bills in Congress to fight lynching, and Democrats voted against all of them? You’ve got some buzz words in this message that tell your mission. . . “democratizing education,” “equal access,” “cause for equality,” “diverse backgrounds.” If you need to know how ignorant U.S. youth are, watch some of the Prager U videos or the Will Witt interviews on college campuses, “What is a conservative?” https://youtu.be/jVJO1IETjC8 Also notice how inarticulate the students are—except for the one or two who can define conservatism.

Also, MLK Day was the day I got your message—how would I do an interview BEFORE today?

Can we legally change our age, like sex?

Every sane person with even a basic science education knows one's sex can't be changed. Sex not a social construct. Gender is a grammar term. But now that the idea that one can also choose to change the years lived, usually reducing, but I suppose some would raise so large numbers could vote, we have a new wrinkle (no pun). If fantasy, wishes and gullibility can change sex, why not age? Hormones and surgery will again come to the rescue! Look at all the laws we have based on age--social security eligibility, voting, driving, running for office, certain professions, marriage, age of consent. It's discriminatory. Yes, why not? We have 6 year old concert pianists; why not surgeons? The ultimate fountain of youth (or age).  I know many 75 year olds that seem to be brighter than college students, at least politically. Why not call them 50 if that's what they desire?

https://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/4/dutch-court-rules-against-man-trying-legally-chang/

Do you know the sex/gender terminology?

Grant #2011-JF-FX-0001  Urban Institute  “Access to Safety, Health Outcomes, Substance Use and Abuse, and Service Provision for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Who Engage in Survival Sex “https://www.urban.org/research/publication/access-safety-health-outcomes-substance-use-and-abuse-and-service-provision-lgbtq-youth-ymsm-and-ywsw-who-engage-survival-sex   

This report provides a list of definitions for LGBTQ youth at risk for health problems. It was sort of wordy, so I condensed a bit.  In a discussion group we were noting the changing terminology.

Cisgender: Individuals whose experiences of their gender match the sex they were assigned at birth.

Gender expression: The aspects of behavior and outward presentation that may (intentionally or unintentionally) communicate gender to others in a given culture or society.

Gender nonconforming: People who have or are perceived to have gender characteristics or behaviors that do not conform to traditional or societal expectations. Gender-nonconforming people may or may not identify as transgender.

Sexual orientation: Whom a person is physically and emotionally attracted to. Sexual orientation is distinct from gender identity; transgender people may identify as heterosexual, bisexual, gay, lesbian, or any other sexual orientation.

Transgender: People whose gender identity (internal sense of being female, male, or another gender) is incongruent with their sex assigned at birth (physical body).

Young men who have sex with men (YMSM): Young men who may identify as heterosexual but have sex with members of the same sex, often in exchange for money and/or material goods.

Young women who have sex with women (YWSW): Young women who may identify as hetero-sexual but have sex with members of the same sex, often in exchange for money and/or material goods.

Exploiter: An individual who uses tactics involving force, fraud, and coercion to control a young person’s involvement in the commercial sex market.

Peer facilitator: A peer, who may or may not be engaged in survival sex, who provides nonexploitative support to someone engaging in survival sex, so the person engaging in survival sex does not have limited mobility; decides what they do and what they trade sex for; and is not subject to force, fraud, or coercion.

Youth engaged in survival sex: The phrases “youth engaged in survival sex” and “youth who exchange sex for money and/or material goods (e.g., shelter, food, and drugs)” are used here to reflect young people’s experiences of involvement in the commercial sex market in their own terms.

Gay family: An alternative familial network of LGBTQ people that may act as an alternative to the family of origin from which many LGBTQ people, particularly youth, have been excluded. The term may also be used to refer to drag houses in the ball scene.

Ball scene/house culture: A community consisting primarily of black and Latino and Latina LGBTQ people organized around anchoring family-like structures, called houses, and competitive balls. [I’d never heard of Ball Culture, but you can find a description in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_culture .  Apparently, Langston Hughes in the 1920s described it.)

Barrier and nonbarrier protection: Any contraceptive or other protective device or method used to prevent unwanted pregnancy or the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other STDs.

 Interesting findings about the almost 300 youth in this study (this is the 3rd report):

99% of these LGBTQ at risk youth in this study were using contraceptives (barrier and nonbarrier). [A quick look shows that compares with about 50% of non LGBTQ teens)

93% were using the services of a helping agency, 99% accepted help from them and 94% said they would seek help from that agency again

only 5% in the study were white.

47% male, 36% female, 11% transwoman (i.e.biological male), 3% transman (biological female), 5% other, not specified, or wouldn’t say

These youth are at greater risk than heterosexual male and female youth for violence, abuse, sexual victimization, mental health risks,  sexually transmitted diseases, and homelessness

Other reports funded by this grant

https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/71446/2000424-Locked-In-Interactions-with-the-Criminal-Justice-and-Child-Welfare-Systems-for-LGBTQ-Youth-YMSM-and-YWSW-Who-Engage-in-Survival-Sex.pdf

The Youth vote has much better choices with the Republican slate this coming year, but . . .

It is said that liberals become conservatives as they age (has something to do with raising a family and paying debts), but there's pretty good research to show that how you vote when you start is how you'll end up. In 2008, the youth vote went for Obama. They were sucker punched in my opinion, but with the help of older Christians who sat out 2012, they also reelected him. Now those 18-25 year olds will be 26-33 when Hillary asks for their obedience, and they won't even give it a thought and will pull the lever/press the screen for the big D. They've finished college (although not their government induced debt), married or living with, might even have a child or two. Their happy clappy rock star religion is probably boring now and not much has replaced it. They are probably too busy to look around and think or notice how things have changed since Obama gave them hope and Kool-aid.

Millennials, born between 1981 and 1999, consist of 80 million Americans who are the largest generation in 100 years. Accounting for roughly one-fourth of the total voters today—a larger voting block than seniors citizens—they are predicted to make up as much as 40 percent of the electorate by 2020. Most are too young to remember 9/11, and the recession was just a hiccup because they could move back home with mom and dad. and still pay for their car and i-phone and pot. Many really do want someone to take care of them, and even though the gov't takes from their own wallet and future, they'd rather believe the lies than do the tough stuff of analysis and thinking. Marx was really wrong--he thought you'd need a revolt of the workers when all that was necessary was materialistic college grads.

According to Pew Research, young voters continue to identify with the Democrat Party at relatively high levels and express significantly more liberal attitudes on a range of issues, from gay marriage, abortion, the environment, and the role of the federal government. The kids who were left at day care to be raised by others, are perfectly comfortable with having the federal government take over their decisions and life’s direction.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/5/jp-moran-2016-gop-youth-vote-problem-and-how-deal-/?page=all

http://www.conservativebookclub.com/10576/featured-article/can-conservatives-win-back-the-youth-vote

Are these men really missing?

The New York Times Upshot column claims: “In New York, almost 120,000 black men between the ages of 25 and 54 are missing from everyday life. In Chicago, 45,000 are, and more than 30,000 are missing in Philadelphia. Across the South — from North Charleston, S.C., through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and up into Ferguson, Mo. — hundreds of thousands more are missing.”

I'm not sure why they are called missing. Black women abort at a much higher rate than white, so let's assume over half of those babies are male (birth ratio statistics); the crime rate for black men is about 8 times that of white, and their victims are black, so unless you want the police and courts to ignore the victims so the perps won't be in jail, what is the solution? More males than females are born, except among blacks; all boys are less healthy than girls, and by age 13 there is quite a discrepancy; visit the prisons and talk to the men of any race who grew up without fathers married to their mothers and in the home. CDC estimates that blacks account for almost half of all new infections of HIV in the U.S.each year, and although that's not the death sentence it used to be, it's also not the road to health, employment and marriage--and in a number of cities about 1/3 of the gay/bisexual black men are infected. When black men marry, about 24% marry outside their race, decreasing the opportunity for marriage for black women (Pew Study) so they might as well be missing. There is no plot.They aren't missing. But there is some negative behavior that can be changed.

Also, the author doesn’t seem to grasp the connection that the higher prison rate has resulted in lower crime rates for black communities.

Since the 1990s, death rates for young black men have dropped more than rates for other groups, notes Robert N. Anderson, the chief of mortality statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both homicides and H.I.V.-related deaths, which disproportionately afflict black men, have dropped. Yet the prison population has soared since 1980. In many communities, rising numbers of black men spared an early death have been offset by rising numbers behind bars.

The stock market isn’t the whole story

On one of my feeds I saw a poster proclaiming all the economic successes of Obama since January 2009 (can't find it now).  And there's no doubt, those with investments have done well (mainly because of quantitative easing), and unemployment figures are nearing what he promised would happen in 2010.  However, the young, female and minority voters who voted heavily for him, still haven't benefited from his policies.

"Five years into an “economic recovery,” real median household income “is now 3.1 percent below that of June 2009 when the ‘great recession’ officially ended .. .  Single women with and without children present saw their incomes fall by roughly 5 percent.  Those age 25-34 experienced an income decline of 4.4 percent. Black heads of households saw their income tumble by 7.7 percent, while the income of Hispanic heads of households fell 5.6 percent. . The poor and unskilled saw their incomes fall by 7.4 percent for those with less than a high-school diploma and 8.2 percent for those with only a high-school diploma." [Stephen Moore, Patriot Post, Sept. 17, 2014]

Obama is driving away Democrats

“In 2008, 54% of likely voters identified as Democrat or lean Democrat. 42% of likely voters identified as GOP or lean GOP. In other words, the electorate, including independents who lean towards a particular party, was D+12. This year, however, the Democrat advantage has disappeared. 49% of likely voters today identify as GOP or lean GOP. Just 46% of likely voters are or lean towards the Democrats. This is a 15-point swing towards the GOP from 2008 to an outright +3 advantage for the GOP. By comparison, in 2004, when Bush won reelection, the electorate was evenly split, with each party getting support from 48% of likely voters.”

http://www.gallup.com/poll/158399/2012-electorate-looks-like-2008.aspx

And that youth vote Obama got in 2008?  Well, it seems they grew up and had to get jobs.  Let’s hope they look around and figure out they can’t chase his father’s socialist and anti-colonialist dreams another four years.  The current youth vote (born 18-20 years ago) are still stumbling in the dark and trying to lose their virginity vote.

People are groomed to be Marxists

says Teague Cuddeback, a former protégée of a Marxist activist embedded within the Democratic Party. She was suckered too, so she points out what to watch for--particularly among idealistic young Christians who mean well, but don't know their Bible.

"We were young, impressionable, sometimes alienated but always seeking greater autonomy from anxious or overweening parents. We just knew we were changing the world for the better. It felt great to be appreciated, considered important, to be working under the guiding hand of someone older, but not too much older; someone in the know, well placed, intelligent, well-read, cheerful, always encouraging, affirming us as talented, valuable persons. We were praised for unselfishly standing for the disenfranchised, the disrespected, those without the legal power to do much for themselves. Oh, how we identified!"

She also makes this interesting comment about the Tea Parties:

"The TEA Party movement has emerged to the utter shame of the Republican Party. It is challenging the brain-dead thinking of those still surrendering their votes to Leftists whose policies are directly responsible for most of the social and economic ills we face today. They are having some impact. The Tea Partiers also have shocked and frightened Republican Party stalwarts who have been doing the same thing for so long with the same pathetic results and are threatened by voters who now demand accountability or their jobs.

Anyone who’s been to a TEA Party rally has felt the energy and desire to “get ‘er done” and know the blanket charges of racism are ludicrous. Democrats make these statements to disguise the fact they have been promoting genocide among blacks for decades and more recently encouraging Hispanics to be law breakers. The Tea Partiers – bless their souls – are attempting to demonstrate that it is the institutionalizing Democrats that block all efforts to unleash the native intelligence and skills of those kept poor by deception and fraud."

So ignore the charges of ignorance, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and take a good look at what you can do. You just might be able to see November from your house, your job, your polling place.

There's no joy in being right

Neo-Neocon writes: "A number of readers felt that the high rates of unemployment among the young is a case of just desserts: serves them right. And although I want a great many young people to learn the lesson that voting for a con man, an empty suit with little or no experience who makes beautiful promises that mean little or nothing, is a bad idea—and that they retain the information for decades to come, so it doesn’t happen again—there’s no joy in my heart about the rest of it."

Like me, she used to be a Democrat, so she knows how easy it is to fall for that feel-good, do-good line. And these young people didn't even have parents who made it through the Great Depression like we did. They've never known anything but good times. It's tough out there.

4645

Cite your sources!

There's a full page ad in the paper today from the State of New York Commissioner of Health addressed to Disney, GE, News Corp., Sony, Time Warner and Viacom.

"The science is clear: exposure to smoking in movies is the single most powerful pro-tobacco influence on children today, accounting for the recruitment of half of all new adolescent smokers."

No one is more anti-tobacco than I am, but for statements like that, I'd like to see some sources. It sounds like big government trying to push aside the influence of parenting, church, school, social network, and the non-Hollywood arts industry. I went on-line and looked at various studies (CDC, BMJ) read through the summaries, then the corrections, then the citations where authors were often citing themselves (bad form), and I even came across one that said that although incidence of smoking in movies was going down, smoking was going up! And yet the letter claims,

"Tobacco imagery delivers nearly 200,000 U.S. adolescents into tobacco addition each year."

I think, if I read correctly, that for a certain percentage of young teens who try smoking, many have seen a movie in the past year where actors were smoking. I don't know how many who try smoking after seeing an R movie (and where are their parents?) have also been taken to concerts, art museums, plays, library story hours, school lyceums, sporting events and school parties. Do they want to buy a hockey stick or a box of watercolors? I hope they've adjusted for other influences. I suspect that the first cigarette needs to be reinforced by some other type of influence--either genetic predisposition, family members who smoke, or peer acceptance or all three. My son, who is trying to stop his 20+ year addiction, says he was hooked after the first cigarette because he liked how it made him feel. Then smoking behavior was reinforced at school, which at that time allowed it on campus. I tried smoking in junior high, and again in college. It didn't do a thing for me, tasted awful and made my clothes and hair stink, plus I had disapproval from friends, so what would be the point? Smoking was probably in every movie I'd ever seen in the 1950s and 60s and when I was in high school, I saw several movies a week. And they really made it look glamorous and fun in those days. Obesity is passing tobacco as a health problem. Especially in childhood. Next: no movies showing restaurants, eating or snacking. No previews announcing food in the lobby. No popcorn allowed.

So guys, if the science is clear, make your citations clear also.