Off to the gym before starting the real workout in the kitchen preparing for our Christmas Eve dinner. Coach Tyler sent an e-mail workout with squats, bridges and step jacks, which I won't do because I'll be busy.
"T’was the workout before Christmas and it’s made to be done in your house…
While your kids and family are perhaps stirring, like a not so little mouse…
Your exercise shoes are tied with great care…
And you know, that St. Nicholas soon would be there…"
I was listening to Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth; the infancy narratives" (2012, Random House) this morning and he noted St. Bernard's homily about Mary's Yes. So I just had to look it up, first in my books on spirituality of the middle ages, and then on the internet. Although his personality was a bit prickly, his writings are wonderful.
"The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life."
https://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/heart_mary/annunciation_mary_fiat_st_bernard.htm
He also cited another idea, which I haven’t tracked down (I’d have to replay that part) that Mary conceived Jesus not through the womb, but through her ear (hearing the Word). I did find this citation. 'Through her ear the Word entered and dwelt secretly in the womb' (attributed to Ephrem, H. Mary 11.6). Something else interesting to look up.
https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoever.asp
Rule 1. The presence of whoever or whomever indicates a dependent clause. Use whoever or whomever to agree with the verb in that dependent clause, regardless of the rest of the sentence.
Rule 2. When the entire whoever/whomever clause is the subject of the verb that follows the clause, look inside the clause to determine whether to use whoever or whomever.
I have only one firm belief about the American political system, and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat.
P.J. O'Rourke
“He was a daring, in-your-face iconoclast. A wild fornicator, he had many mistresses and a bastard son. A self-confessed thief who declared “the evil in me was foul, but I loved it.” St. Augustine, A.D. 398.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/augustines-good-and-evil_2741796.html
Nonprofit Organizations: There are 1,571,056 tax-exempt organizations, including:
1,097,689 public charities
105,030 private foundations
368,337 other types of nonprofit organizations, including chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations and civic leagues. (Source: NCCS Business Master File 4/2016)
How many of these non-profits, particularly the foundations which must choose which non-profits to fund, could survive the scrutiny that has been lavished on the Trump Foundation by people who hate the President?
People employed in the non-profit world wouldn't agree with me, but I believe we have too many, that they are too political, and too rich with too many getting their money from government grants, where you "dance with the one who brung you." Non-profits account for 9.2% of all wages and salaries paid in the United States and their share of GDP was 5.3% in 2014.
https://nccs.urban.org/data-statistics/quick-facts-about-nonprofits?
My Canadian cousin reported this in her Christmas letter. I didn’t know there was such a horse and this was reported in Bloodhorse magazine. https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/229006/robert-bruce-rallies-to-arlington-million-victory?
Inside library story. We used to get a subscription to Bloodhorse at the veterinary library at OSU where I was the librarian, but didn't catalog it. One day to clear the shelf I put about 2 years on a small table outside the library with a sign, "Free to a good home." Someone put all the magazines on the floor and took the table.
"Non-Hispanic black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by abortion. In 2016, as in previous years, more African American babies were aborted than were born alive in New York City”.
I reported this on my blog some years ago and was told I was being racist for reporting it!
“Eighty years ago (November 17, 1938) Stalin ended the Great Terror, citing “local excesses” that had come to his attention. It wasn’t until two decades later that the KGB tallied the victims of the sixteen-month reign of terror at 1,334,360. Half were shot, and the rest sentenced to the Gulag. The Gulag itself continued to grow during and after the Second World War. It reached its peak of 2.5 million prisoners shortly before Stalin’s death. Of these, one out of five were women.”
https://www.womenofthegulag.com/
“Many hoped the Bolshevik Revolution one hundred years ago would usher in a new era of gender and class equality. Following the revolution, Soviet Russia declared “International Women’s Day” an official holiday, and “Marxist feminists” romanticize communism to this day. Women of the Gulag, both a remarkable book and a documentary film, highlights the disparity between the Soviet Union’s alleged gender equality and the reality of life for women under communism.”
Yes, we hear about gender equity from our college students and leftists in business and government.
“Joseph Stalin was responsible for the deaths of over 20 million people. Yet today in America, teaching on the crimes of communism is so bad that almost one third of Millennials think President George W. Bush killed more people than this Marxist mass-murderer. Those who are familiar with the history of Stalin’s Soviet Union might recall the name of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his iconic Gulag Archipelago. Fewer still know that the majority of those who experienced—and survived—the Gulag were women, and it is their experiences, their memories, that must be preserved and shared to ensure the next generation understands the consequences of Stalin’s failed collectivist policies and his horrific disregard for human life.”
No, I had no recollection. I guessed several trips, like to Pennsylvania. Then to Columbus, Indiana where we stayed in an old restored hotel. No. That wasn’t it. And he kept describing—we’d walked through a woods. He had no idea why it had popped in his mind, but he was so sure. Must have been on one of our architectural tours. So I opened the blog—and there it was July 25, 2005.
“The 1886 Crescent Hotel is old, creaky, and supposedly visited by ghosts, but we had a beautifully restored room, and the group enjoyed a fabulous morning brunch in the delightful dining room. The gardens host many weddings--one the night we arrived.”
http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2005/07/1295-north-west-arkansas-thursday.html
Published on Christmas Eve in the Wall Street Journal since 1949 written by the late Vermont Royster and it has been published annually since
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar. Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.
But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression — for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?
There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?
Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.
And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.
So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.
But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.
Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter’s star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.
And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
--------------------------------------------------
“Vermont Connecticut Royster (April 30, 1914 - July 22, 1996) was an American journalist whose career at The Wall Street Journal spanned half a century. Royster was no ordinary journalist, he studied literature and classical languages—Latin and Greek —and his writings reflected these influences. He tackled the issues that affected people in their everyday lives with thoughtful insight, touching on the essentials of life. He had an unfailing faith in the American people and in the greatness of the United States as a country blessed by God. His Christmas and Thanksgiving editorials, reprinted every year since Royster wrote them, continue to resonate with people's desires for freedom, peace, and prosperity in a world filled with challenges.”https://uts.edu/news-and-events/615-in-hoc-anno-domini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt0xprEaJfU
Different standards for Clinton who had a bevy of lawyers, and Flynn who was told he didn’t need to have a lawyer present.
No one believes Cohen—especially not Democrats—the day before.
So far, the Mueller investigation has been bank fraud, and lies, and collusion is not a crime, but none has been found.
The head of the FBI can’t remember anything, and still doesn’t know anything, showed no curiosity, can’t corroborate anything. And this guy was head of the FBI? In his mind, he’s always right. The book was a joke—a very high opinion of himself. An amnesiac with incredible hubris.
Julia Ioffe complained in WaPo article about people wishing her a Merry Christmas. A commenter replied:
"Oh, for heaven's sake! I can understand a Jewish person being sensitive in the current climate, but this sort of "everyone stop what they're doing because it's all about me" wears people out. This is why people hate the left, and I'm a leftie! As an atheist, Ms Ioffe, I typically wish people Happy Holidays, but if they wish me a Merry Christmas, I respond with the same with a warm heart. Not for the holiday, which I dislike more for its retail nature than its religious nature, but for the warm wishes they are extending me. Did your parents never teach you "When in Rome..."? If I were in Israel, I'd do my best to revel in the holidays celebrated there, or at least to tolerate them with a smile. Same thing if I were in Pakistan (and don't get me started on my views of Islam - I'm a feminist for crying out loud and no fan of any religion). I want to sympathize, I really do, but you are not winning friends or influencing people here. Would you have all the world be drab, with no one celebrating anything because, well, someone somewhere won't be into that? Focus on taking tax breaks away from churches to make the separation of church and State more meaningful. But being wished a Merry Christmas? (and really, you had to bring this up just as the right was starting to realize their war on Christmas stuff was nonsense?) Being wished a Merry Christmas is a mind over matter problem - if you don't mind, it don't matter. Get over yourself!"
She wandered off the reservation to address churches, hurting her otherwise sensible advice. Although I think taking grant money from the government is bad for churches, being exempt from taxes predates the founding of the United States, and would seriously damage millions of 501-c3's which are exempt for charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary public safety or sports.
As concerns Julia Ioffe, I don't think she minds at all (says it's because she's Jewish, but I think it's because she was raised a Soviet Russian citizen). She just hasn't been in the news for awhile, and can't resist touching the hot stove. She craves attention--even negative.
You think you're safe at your university of college if you have tenure? Not if you come out for western civilization and don't believe in creating pools of victims. Rick Mehta, an associate professor of psychology, has been outspoken on a range of contentious issues. He has come under fire for saying multiculturalism is a scam, there's no wage gap between men and women, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has created a victim narrative. Identity politics are divisive. Duh. All he was suggesting was a discussion. Imagine that--doing what colleges are supposed to do. He had many teaching awards, right up to his firing. Academe has been entrapped by a group of "true believers' [in Marxism]. No discussion is allowed.
Janice Fiamengo went from being a radical feminist to a moderate feminist to an anti-feminist after 9/11 when she saw her Canadian colleagues enjoying the event and proclaiming "they deserved it." Also she saw how unjust hiring practices were--very anti-white men. She became outraged when equity hiring meant the most qualified person wasn't chosen . Now speaks out on behalf of men.
Suzanne Hanselman reports this was created by Juan Cisneros. It was displayed at a beach in Ventura, California. It appeared on the Vintage Lakeside page suggesting someone could do this there.
“Support for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border jumped to its highest level on record, Quinnipiac University announced Tuesday, reporting results of its latest poll:
“This is the highest level of support for the wall since the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN- uh-pe-ack) University National Poll first asked the question in November 2016.”
Forty-three percent of voters support building the border wall, while 54% oppose it, according to the national survey of 1,147 voters, conducted Dec. 12-17, 2018.”
This will probably be even more important now if troops are withdrawn from middle east civil wars, internecine conflicts, border wars, etc. and the U.S. stops being policeman for the world. The hawks have been saying for 15 years it’s better to fight over there than at home. We have a border sieve/open back door for illegals who want to harm us to come in with those looking for economic opportunity and the run of the mill drug dealer. They also come in on visitor visas, HB1’s for working high tech jobs, and in chain migration.
I have no idea why Trump decided to announce this on a day of victory and bi-partisanship for prison reform, but he does seem to love keeping everyone guessing, including some of his strongest supporters. Hugh Hewett who started as a never Trumper then went to big supporter, is today scratching his head.
There’s a go-fund me page for building the wall that raised about 4 million in the first few hours. I doubt that it is legal, and that’s a long way from 5 Billion. It really makes no difference that much of what Trump has accomplished was supported by Democrats, they hate, hate, hate him, and nothing can satisfy their thirst for his death. I believe the intention is not just to remove Trump, by death, courts, or sabotage from the media with fake news and constant harassment, but to also get rid of Pence; then they can install Pelosi. She’s not Clinton, but still has the body parts plus some that have been added over the years. Compared to what’s coming down the pike with Democrats, she’s going to look like a moderate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziw_WRCSHCw&feature=youtu.be
One of our gifts this Christmas will be to the Pregnancy Decision Health Center.
Everyone is upset about Facebook sharing our data. Our carelessness in exchange for convenience has been going on a long, long time. Read the DSNB disclaimer that comes with your credit or debit card. To have the convenience of a piece of plastic in your wallet, you agreed years ago to share your personal information in any transaction the bank needs to maintain your account, including legal investigations and credit bureaus; you agreed they could use your personal information for marketing purposes; for uses with other financial companies; for their affiliates (whoever that is) to perform their "everyday" business purposes; for those affiliates to use your personal data for their business purposes, and for those affiliates to market to you using your own information you supplied when you applied for credit.
In 1967 when we moved to Columbus we had to request service from the utility companies. On ONE form there was a small error where a number took the place of a letter in my husband's name. That error continued to appear in all sorts of advertising we received for years because all that is sold. And resold. Same with the BMV. So although the FB theft and misuse of our data is much bigger, we've been carefully eased into this lobster bath of warm water heating up for over 50 years.
https://www.itsecurityguru.org/2018/04/09/facebooks-data-scandal-impact/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html
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