Catching up on crime

I was reading about the Yale director who stole $40 million in electronics equipment from her employer and spent it on lavish living. She's out on bond. Piker. That made me think of the trusted Dixon, IL employee who stole $54 million from the little town of Dixon, with a population of only 15,000. She was into horses, not computers. The largest heist of municipal funds in history. She was released from prison early last year after serving half her 20 year sentence. Made her case for early release on risk of Covid in prison. https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-investigates/rita-crundwell-stole-54-million-then-returned-to-the-scene-of-the-crime/

The architecture and ambiance of Ukraine

It seems American architects are boycotting doing work in Russia. That's probably a good idea, but does Russia really need them? I've seen a few videos of cities in Ukraine, both before and after the war, and it looks to me like it was a very beautiful country before the invasion, with lovely thoroughfares, graceful trees and parks, and grand public spaces.

One tourist site states (and it's their job to be over the top): "Ukraine is possibly one of the most overlooked countries in Europe. Although it might stay under the radar when it comes to Eastern European travel, this just makes visiting Ukraine even more of a hidden gem and a true travel treasure. From powerful architecture to sandy beaches and lush vegetation, Ukraine has it all."  https://expatexplore.com/blog/ukraine-best-places-to-visit/

This female tourist guide assures you it is quite safe to travel in Ukraine, but that was February 24, which I believe was the day of the invasion. She stressed the reasonable prices.  Still you can see the photos. https://www.mywanderlust.pl/best-places-to-visit-in-ukraine/ 

However, she does praise some Soviet era architecture, which I don't care for at all.

The U.S. public architecture is very ugly.  Even if it's barely 40 years, when it is torn down.  I shudder when I drive by or have to visit the "brutalism" style of our Ohio History Connection (the historical society) building which resembles either a square mushroom or a box without wheels.  It's even worse insides--a perpetual basement no matter where you stand.

How Big Tech stifles free speech and encourages evil

 

Progressives have to pay the rent, so they go woke not to go broke

Remember the pain of the liberal/progressive journalist. "You cannot pay rent if you offend people." They go along to get along. They don't believe the woke nonsense anymore than we do, but they have to pay the rent. Listen to Eve Barlow's tale.

"In the summer of 2020, George Floyd was killed by a white police officer, and Black Lives Matter protests erupted in cities all over the United States. I feel comfortable saying this now: I felt conflicted. I remember surrendering to the peer pressure to donate every single day, and to post receipts of those donations (like I was in trouble for something—oh yeah, being “white”). I remember my Instagram stories were just re-post after re-post of this, that and the other activist, of whom I had no background knowledge, but who I was told were the people to re-post. I’ve since unfollowed them all because all of them showed themselves to be antisemitic. 

I was performing. I was absolutely performing. And I am not ashamed to admit it. I was so scared. I was still a hired freelance journalist, and I knew the impact of staying silent. Freelance writing isn’t a joke. You cannot pay rent if you offend people. So I kept a foot in the world of music writing, and with my paychecks, I splurged on bailing out protestors via GoFundMe pages, or whatnot. At least, I think I did. Who knows?" (Eve Barlow, music journalist) "A ghost story," Common Sense with Bari Weiss.

Biden's responses--at least he didn't tweet

At least he didn't tweet while in Europe. He just terrified most of the world, however. His staff must wait by the minute for the next shoe to drop. Soon he'll be Imelda Marcos with 3,000 pairs of shoes.

The Museum of the Bible--a treasury of information and history

Today I've been listening to podcasts from The Museum of the Bible. https://www.museumofthebible.org/museum-of-the-bible-podcast   Great programs and panels. If you thought diversity and inclusion weren't possible, you need this channel. This is true diversity--of ideas, of history, of stories. Today I've listened to programs on the Mayflower Compact, the origins of the Armenian Bible and Christianity in the 400s, and the Jews in England in the 1100s. Fabulous stuff. Others I'll check out later are at least four presentations on the Haggadah, the Bible and the Qur'an, Shroud of Turin, and the Bible and War.

 Also, how do you teach middle school students about American history? USE PRIMARY SOURCES. Let them speak for themselves if you want to smash the lies of the 1619 project. Let President Lincoln remind you what he believed about slavery, and not "woke" ideologs from the NYT. A real treasure.

From the website: "On November 18, [2021] the museum will host a panel discussion on the 1620 Mayflower Compact — the shortest American political document of enduring significance. With these few words, however, the Pilgrims sowed the seeds of liberty and self-government that made their small New England settlement a cradle of American democracy. This event will explore the idea that these seventeenth-century Pilgrims were the true forerunners of America’s Founders and examine the Compact as a blueprint used to frame this nation's founding principles as embedded in the US Constitution."

"On October 21, 2021: Does the importance of the Bible extend beyond Jewish and Christian traditions? How has the Bible played a role in the origins and development of Islam? Join Museum of the Bible for a discussion about the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an. Hear from Dr. Gabriel Reynolds – author of The Qur’an and the Bible and Allah: God in the Qur’an – on how the Qur’an is part of the larger story of the Bible’s impact on the world. The evening will include a panel of engaging respondents and an audience Q & A. This is both an in-person and virtual event."

What's going on with Pope Francis?

On March 12, Pope Francis went to the Jesuit Church of the Gesú in Rome for a Mass on the occasion of the 400^th anniversary of the canonizations of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. The pope preached at the Mass and concelebrated. He had earlier been scheduled to be the principal celebrant, but Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, for some reason, was the principal celebrant instead.
           
          Liturgical theology and law do not countenance that a bishop, let alone the diocesan bishop in his own diocese, concelebrate Mass with a priest as the principal celebrant (apart from a grave necessity, such as infirmity). This flows from the nature of the episcopal office: the bishop is the high priest in his diocese. He offers the sacrifice of the Mass for his people, while his priests, co-workers who serve the local Church under his authority, concelebrate with him.

 The Mass began with the usual entrance procession. Pope Francis was already seated in a chair near the altar. He wore no liturgical vestments, and thus gave no indication that he was either concelebrating or presiding. He preached without wearing the liturgical garments (mozetta, rochet, and stole) that are prescribed to be worn when the preacher is not the one celebrating the Mass. 

He concelebrated, extending his hand and saying the words of consecration, without wearing Mass vestments (alb, stole, and chasuble). This practice is strictly forbidden. In its 2004 Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, the Congregation for Divine Worship stated: “The abuse is reprobated whereby the sacred ministers celebrate Holy Mass or other rites without sacred vestments.”
 

More at The Catholic Thing, https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2022/03/22/papal-abuse-of-liturgical-law/

We Protestants are just happy when the pastor doesn't wear jeans with holes and athletic shoes.

Democrats' War against Women

I hate to use Aljazeera as a news source (owned by a Qatar magnate, but probably not as oppressive as Twitter, FB or Jeff Bezos' WaPo), but our own MSM don't report the news if it doesn't fit the theme of the day, which since October 2020 is "cover for Biden." Another example of the Democrats' WAR ON WOMEN.

"The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has announced that girls’ high schools will be closed, hours after they reopened for the first time in nearly seven months. The backtracking by the Taliban means female students above the sixth grade will not be able to attend school." https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/23/taliban-orders-girls-schools-shut-hours-after-reopening

When George Bush after consulting with both parties and allies and getting approval, took U.S. into Afghanistan after 9-11, he liberated more women in the 21st century than Lincoln did slaves in the 19th century according to the Atlantic--hardly a right wing Bush loving magazine. When Biden executed his disastrous, inhumane and dangerous exit last August, killing many civilians and U.S. soldiers, he had approval from no one, at least no one who now admits it.

Democrats are waging a WAR ON WOMEN, not just U.S. women, but Afghans and Uyghurs and the poor souls of many nations who try to break into our country at the border where Biden dangles all sorts of goodies which puts them and their children at great risk for sex slavery.

I also got a warning from Facebook because of a poster I put up about his shutting down Keystone and buying oil from Russia:

"Fact Check: Russian Oil Ban, Blocked Keystone XL Are NOT Only Causes of Gas Hikes | Lead Stories"

But I never said it was the ONLY cause of gas hikes. I also didn't say Hunter's lap top scandal was covered up by FB, or that I'm a trans-reporter pretending to be from a major news source, so I suppose that's another problem--I didn't tell the whole story of Biden's crimes.

By far the biggest reason for inflation and price hikes for oil is the scarcity--created by Biden's threats in 2020 that he would shut down the industry in favor of green technology. It's why we're buying from Russia and the middle east. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4917719/user-clip-biden-destroy-oil-industry  There are milions invested in every search for fossil fuel--and the lag time between "striking oil" refining it, and getting it to the gas station you pass on your way to work is about 2 years.  Good luck finding investors who didn't take Biden seriously.  It doesn't hurt them to sit back and wait for a sane president--they are rich--but it does hurt you at the pump.

The Hunter Biden Laptop and the efforts to cover it up

Hunter Biden's "laptop turned up in September 2020, and by October, there should have been an enormous story following up on the New York Post’s reporting. But outside of the conservative media, it was a nonstory. Now the Post says, “the story was censored by social media companies at the behest of the Democratic Party. Mainstream media outlets — including the (New York) Times — attacked or ignored the Post’s revelations.” The Biden campaign claimed the story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign — another instance of Trump supposedly colluding with the Russians. What is more, over 50 intelligence community adepts signed a letter claiming the Post story had “the classic earmarks of a Russian disinformation operation.” These intelligence community adepts really have it in for Trump. I wonder why? They are not supposed to be so partisan, are they?

Now The New York Times has published a story — 17 months after the Post published its story — that the Hunter Biden laptop exists and the evidence that the Post has published is true, without mentioning the Post by name. That is to say, the Times validated the Post’s story 16 months after the Big Guy won the presidency. The Times seems to be admitting to participating in a vast cover-up. Why would it? Does it think that its readers only know what appears in The New York Times? Apparently, the news is not news until the Times says it is. Nowhere in the Times’ long and tedious report of the Hunter Biden story is the Post mentioned, though the Times’ story is basically using the Post’s reportage.
I can think of no better example of The New York Times existing in a bubble than the Times’ treatment of this story. In fact, I can think of no better example of the American left — which I no longer call liberal — living in a bubble than its treatment of this story. America really is a divided country. There is the conservative part of America, and there is the left-wing part of America. " R. Emmett Tyrell https://patriotpost.us/opinion/87154-joes-little-big-guy-2022-03-24

According to this NYT article, the FBI has had the laptop since December 2019 so it had been covered up for a long time time before Rudy Giuliani got a copy of the it in 2020! The story explains how Giuliani got a copy of it. Huge government cover up! https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/hunter-biden-laptop.html

The swamp creatures within the government definitely did not want Trump in the White House!

Brown-Jackson has it all

Ketanji Brown Jackson can't define "woman" and doesn't know what to do about child victims of pornography. She'll be approved as our next Supreme Court Justice. Whether or not she can define "woman," she was nominated because she is one. 

KBJ is a package deal for the Left. There must be no boundaries for sexuality--people must be free--even to pretend to be another sex (but don't you dare culturally appropriate an Indian name). There must be no boundaries for the country, either. Vilify anyone who isn't at least brown, but if a Republican he's white and racist. Laws and customs are just repression of desires. Teach the kiddoes to be confused about sexuality and have the little ones taught at library story hour by men dressed as hypersexualized women. Turn Planned Parenthood loose in the schools to teach masturbation and contraception to underage children, then offer abortions. Ridicule marriage and monogamy. Encourage the suppression of religion. Push the birth rate below replacement level. Feminize the men and turn them into snowflakes so they'll want to become women--something KBJ can't define. Put little boys at a disadvantage for 30 years and then punish them for failing at being men. Dress both sexes alike, unless they are transwomen, then pump them full of hormones and put them in thick make-up and bangles and beads. Make them a news spectacle as "first woman to be on the board of xyz." It's the ultimate feminist hatred of men, and ultimately of themselves, women.

Can she define the word woman? No.

Ketanji Brown Jackson can't define the word "woman" although she was nominated for a place on the highest court in the land for that reason, and she's very soft on the crime of possession of child porn. What's wrong with this? Nothing, according to Joe Biden. Considering his crimes, I suppose that makes some sense to them, because the excuse is other judges are lenient too. What about the children? I didn't go to Harvard or Yale (8 of the 9 judges are from 2 law schools), but I can define woman and I know when children are used to satisfy the lust of adults in mailed publications or internet sites, the adults whether perps or consumers need to be in jail for the maximum allowed, not a slap on the wrist.

When Annaliese Dodds (British government position for women's rights) was asked to define woman, she also, like Judge Brown-Jackson, wouldn't do it. Carl Trueman in First Things writes, "To be qualified for a job, one must have a basic understanding of the specific task at hand. The car mechanic needs to know what a car is; the brain surgeon needs to be able to recognize the brain. A politician tasked with safeguarding women’s rights should therefore know what a woman is and be able to articulate that understanding in public statements. “What is a woman?” hardly seems an unexpected or unfair question to ask the shadow secretary for women. And yet she fluffed it." . . .

"Trans ideology robs women of their history and takes male privilege to a whole new level—all in the name of women’s rights. Like the idea that pornography liberates women, transgender theory is arguably one of the most effective male confidence tricks in recent history: Nothing that women can lay claim to as women is now off-limits for men. Hugh Hefner once declared that Playboy was good for women, to which Fr. Richard John Neuhaus responded, “As long as women know what they are good for.” Today, the progressive lobby presents trans rights as good for women, to which I might respond, “As long as women have no idea what a woman is.” " https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/03/liturgy-of-the-powers

The Last Walk by Roland Lane

Last Walk

For me it was a poignant video moment from the hundreds we have witnessed from Ukraine in the last two weeks. Perhaps you saw it too. A father and son walked hand in hand toward a town or city. The son was about four or five years old and was wearing a yellow parka or slicker of some sort. The father was in his late twenties or early thirties. He looked over the head of his son as three or four adults passed by going the opposite direction. Those individuals were carrying backpacks or some type of luggage. Our small family of father and son carried nothing. The video footage lasted about four seconds, but the image spoke the language of this war. What do you say and what are you thinking in what may be the last walk with your son?

My thoughts flew back to the happy memories when I walked hand in hand with my father as we shuffled along through the golden leaves of a bright autumn day in Circleville, Ohio. Circleville was the home of the Circleville Pumpkin show and we walked from where we parked our car on Washington Avenue to Main Street and turned right where parade officials were lining up the floats for the afternoon parade. For me that corner of Washington and Main was magic. Great piles of leaves and brightly decorated floats greeted us along with the aroma of spiced tea, coffee, chocolate, elephant ears, minced chicken sandwiches and pumpkin pie. It was five years after the end of World War II. I was five years old and one of the first baby boomers, a part of the magnificent class of 1945 and a happy recipient of the blessings of peace.

In springtime my focus shifted to Newark, Ohio the childhood home of my mother. On Sundays our family walked a block to church on Western Avenue a street lined with cottonwood trees. It was springtime, and the Cottonwoods dispatched millions of white cotton-like wisps to greet little kids walking to church. The cotton wisps covered lawns and parked cars and on windy days it looked like a snowstorm. I walked hand in hand with my grandmother and I knew from the earliest memories I was not an ordinary grandson. There was a warm and wonderful connection with Grandma Cora that I did not fully understand until much later. My grandma’s eldest son, my uncle Mark died in the last months of the war. I was born six weeks after it ended. I did not discover until much later in life that my grandma Cora saw me as the replacement for the lost son.

My father lived a good life. He was the best man I ever met and although he was almost 92 when he died, all the earlier joys and happy times did not make it easy for me. It was a little past 9:30 am and I and my dad were in his hospital room alone together. I moved his oxygen mask away from his face and bent down to speak into his right ear while I nervously watched the numbers plummet on the oxygen monitor on our upper left. I spoke eight words and he four. My dad and I both knew it was our last conversation. It was one of the shortest conversations in my life and simultaneously it was the most dramatic and most intimate. Be it physical, emotional or mental, most of us will take a last walk with a loved one.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are now taking that last walk. Much of this might have been avoided had the U.S. leadership not botched the exit and abandoned thousands of friends in Afghanistan. Now, the world watches Taiwan. Biden stubbornly hangs on to the notion of “no oil from here” and begs oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Are we all now in agreement that Biden cannot distinguish friends from enemies? This might be the last walk for the United States.

 
Roland Lane, March 20

Fearing for the safety of Finland and the world

Note to a friend in Finland, which was at one time part of the Russian empire.

"I do hope no one in Finland is counting on Biden to save you from Putin. When he's reclaimed Ukraine for his restored empire, he'll come after the rest of you. Biden is worthless. Our military is very weak. He's making deals with Iran and so is Putin. At first he was a laughing stock; now he's just evil."

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/finland-and-sweden-receive-letters-from-putin-demanding-security-guarantees-for-russia-articleshow.html

And in March 2014: "After annexing Crimea and with troops massed on the border of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin will not stop trying to expand Russia until he has “conquered” Belarus, the Baltic states and Finland, one of his closest former advisers has said." (Independent, pay wall)

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/will-russia-invade-finland-why-not-nato-how-likely-attack-putin-1496734

Letter to a Democrat friend, January 2, 2001

It's amazing what turns up in old e-mails. Sometimes I can't get them to open. But the one I'm using for this "memory" was copied to a Word Document. If you remember the millennium scare when the experts thought all computers would fail because no one had programmed them to turn over to 2000, you'll understand why I sometimes don't know what year these were sent unless there are events to which I can connect. The computers continued to work, but didn't record the dates!

About this letter/e-mail. This reply was written January 2, 2001, I know because I mentioned the death of my mom (January 2000) and the December visit of my father. Also we discussed the election of George W. Bush. I was answering a note from a friend I hadn't seen for a long time who was about 30 years younger and had been in our small group from church.  From the context it had been about 5 years since we'd been together. We were both Democrats, although I had voted for Bush in November 2000 because of the abortion issue. I remember we went to her wedding a few years before; I heard years later that they were divorced. She apparently had said something in her letter, which I don't have,  that triggered these comments from me--still a registered Democrat, but ready to leave the party. In the letter below, if something is in parentheses, it's in the original, but something in brackets means I added it today to clarify. Also, I've changed personal names to letters.  Also, one more thing.  When I told my husband about finding this e-mail, he had no recollection of Barbara or our attending her wedding.

Dear Barbara,

It was good to get your e-mail of December 5 and find out what is going on in your lives. I'm happy you've found a believers' church. The Mill Run church opened a year ago [New Year's Eve 2000], but we still attend Lytham. [Comments followed about her deciding not to have children--she was adopted, and her adoptive parents had divorced--I think it was not a happy family.]

You may recall that I am also a registered Democrat--even voted for Clinton/Gore in 1992--mainly because Gore was on the ticket. Notice in my x-mas letter I didn't say which party was stealing the election, but you seemed to know--hmmm.) But I've voted Republican in the last 2 elections [1996, 2000] because they more closely represent what I think is important--human lives, not human lifestyle. I believe abortion is the defining issue of our time as was slavery 150 years ago. Each era has its problems it needs to solve. The difference is 150 years ago Christians (particularly women) were in the forefront trying to reverse a terrible crime against humanity, now women are the great perpetrators. The church just falls in line and tries to pretend it will go away if no one speaks out. The ethical standards of Christians seem to be no different than the rest of society.

The other day on the Rush Limbaugh program I heard a Republican woman complaining about "one issue" Republicans (she was pro-choice), and Rush said he didn't think there was such a thing, but where else could a pro-life person like me go? Four years of a Republican president might save many lives--maybe more if he gets the right people on the Supreme Court and partial birth abortion goes back to the slime pits where it belongs.

Bush has said he is against partial birth abortion and we hope he follows through. Where else could your vote save lives? That Clinton and Gore are Christians (and I believe they are) meant nothing once in office. Gore used to be pro-life (and he seemed to be capable of telling the truth before he became vice president) and he flip flopped for political power--maybe Bush will do the same, but for now I think he sees that wing of the party--those one-issue folks--still has some clout. In just the year 2000, we got partial birth abortion, research on human embryos and the abortion drug RU-486. So there is definitely a slippery slope and it's getting steeper. I think "death" is Clinton's legacy that he's been looking for--more deaths than a major war. Assisted suicide and euthanasia are coming down the pike, and if the Christians' stand on abortion is any indication, it is the gateway to new ways to "make choices."

You said you were thinking of leaving the country if Bush was elected. I don't remember Republicans threatening to leave if Clinton won in 1992 but perhaps they did (some Perot supporters may have in the next election), and Bush got a higher percentage of the popular vote than Clinton ever did. Democrats had the power for 40 years in the legislature, and I think the Republicans stuck it out. If you believe the Democrats are right about the Microsoft suit and it was necessary to hamstring our technology growth, and they were right to strangle our power sources so we have rolling brown-outs and gasoline shortages, and they were right to weaken U.S. by diminishing and demoralizing the military, then you should stick around and fight for your principles. Then maybe in 4 years you can have it all back--but in the meanwhile, if there are layoffs in technology or gasoline shortages, or power outages, remember those were your guys.

Our group keeps on going--like the energizer bunny--but sometimes I think we are the halt and the lame. But it keeps us on our knees! We have 14, 2 widows and 6 couples. X and Y still struggle but they come. Y suffers from a mental illness but is on medication. S continues to have small strokes--her daughter got married this past year. We thought perhaps J had Alzheimer's, but he had brain surgery to relieve some kind of pressure and is now OK. We took in a new couple about 3 years ago, and another new couple this year. N and D, our graduates, still come to special events. J and L and G and P moved out of town. N's dad died in the fall at 104--he was also X's grandfather.

We had a wonderful visit with my 87 y/o Dad in early December. I miss Mom, but have really enjoyed getting to know him better this past year. She was so easy to love and we all enjoyed her wisdom, counsel and love. He's a bit more difficult, but I've been so impressed with his bravery this past year.

I'll close now, and wait to hear from you in five years. I'll send you my family's story [not sure what I was referring to] in snail mail. Hope this doesn't clog your mailbox!

Norma

Hollywood's new Red Scare

"Another writer, who, like most of the writers we interviewed, was afraid to speak openly for fear of never working again, said: “I get so paranoid about even phone calls. It’s so scary. My close friends and my family are just like, ‘Don’t say anything.’ It is one of those things, ‘Will I be able to sleep at night if I say anything?’ Getting jobs in this town is so hard, and I’m very grateful to have a great job. If there’s any so-called ding on my record, that would just be an argument against hiring me.” "

Sounds like something right out of the 1950s, when Hollywood feared the HUAC, the Red Scare, and the Blacklist. Ironic that now it's WOKEISM, just another form of Communism that is causing fear, anger and lost jobs for Hollywood. MeToo meets George Floyd meets diversity quotas. Well, we hadn't been to a movie theatre in years. Never too early to give up on a dying Hollywood altogether.

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/hollywoods-new-rules?

Found in Grandma's Bible--If we only understood

On Sunday morning I wanted to check how the word "charity" was used in I Corinthians, and looked at my grandmother's Bible, a 1901 American Standard Version. By 1901, the American Edition used the word "love" and not "charity" as in the 1611 King James Version. And although the copyright date was 1901, it had really been revised in 1885. (Long story).  I'm not sure this was her study Bible which she had used when they went to Chicago for a spring class at Bethany Seminary because it only had a few notes in the margins in what looked like her "older" frail handwriting after she'd had a slight stroke in the 1930s.  But I found a yellowed clipping, probably from the Brethren Gospel Messenger printed in the 1930s.  It was a poem by Rudyard Kipling.  

IF WE ONLY UNDERSTOOD

If we knew the cares and trials.
Knew the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointment,
Understood the loss and gain--
Would the grim eternal roughness
Seem— I wonder— just the same?
Should we help where we now hinder?
Should we pity where we blame?

 
Ah! we judge each other harshly,
Knowing not life’s hidden force;
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at its source;
Seeing not amid the evil
All the golden grains of good;
And we’d love each other better
If we only understood.

Could we judge all deeds by motives,
that surround each other’s lives,
See the naked heart and spirit,
Knowing what spur the action gives,
Often we would find it better,
Purer than we judge we should,
We would love each other better
If we only understood.
(By Rudyard Kipling)

In the 19th and 20th century newspaper editors did not always check the sources of material that fit the space, if it was credited at all. So I decided to Google the title of this poem. The first version of this I found was at a website called Virginia Chronicle which had microfilm copies of serials published in Virginia. I found the poem attributed to Kipling in the Highlander Recorder, Monterey, Virginia, for Friday, September 30, 1927, however a few lines in the third verse were slightly different. Also, a version of it appeared in the May 25, 1915 Salina [KS] Semi-Weekly Journal.

So I continued to look, and found DiscoverPoetry.com website which seems to be for children. It had a poem by the ever famous "anonymous" which had the verses and lines arranged differently, plus it had four verses. https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/anonymous/if-we-understood/

Could we but draw back the curtains
That surround each other's lives,
See the naked heart and spirit,
Know what spur the action gives,
Often we should find it better,
Purer than we judged we should,
We should love each other better,
If we only understood.

Could we judge all deeds by motives,
See the good and bad within,
Often we should love the sinner
All the while we loathe the sin;
Could we know the powers working
To o'erthrow integrity,
We should judge each other's errors
With more patient charity.

If we knew the cares and trials,
Knew the effort all in vain,
And the bitter disappointment,
Understood the loss and gain—
Would the grim, eternal roughness
Seem—I wonder—just the same?
Should we help where now we hinder,
Should we pity where we blame?

Ah! we judge each other harshly,
Knowing not life's hidden force;
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at its source;
Seeing not amid the evil
All the golden grains of good;
Oh! we'd love each other better,
If we only understood.

Then I found that version as a hymn by Anonymous in "The New Gospel Song Book: a rare collection of songs designed for Christian Work and Worship," Firm Foundation Publishing House (1914) p. 118

The poem "If" by Kipling is quite famous, but I can find nothing in his list of works resembling this poem, which apparently really is by Anon/Author unknown and misattributed to him.  But Grandma and others suffering through the Great Depression and a few American editors loved it.

Dark chocolate morsels

I haven't been able to get Hersey Dark Chocolate Nuggets lately where I shop, but did find some dark chocolate Dove red foil wrapped "promises." Today's wraps for the 2 of us were "Don't wait for sleep to start dreaming," "Be fearlessly authentic," "A smile is the quickest way to brighten a room," and "Be(you)tiful." Dark chocolate is good for your brain and heart; milk chocolate just adds waist.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/16774-heart-healthy-benefits-of-chocolate

Praying for Anna

Fixed hour prayer time observances are very old in the Judeo-Christian worship traditions--Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Episcopal--but not in mine. I've made one up--6, 9, 12, 3, 6 and 9 and am praying for a fictional Russian grandmother (great-grandmother) who is my age and I've named Anna Ivanovna. She represents all Russian grandmothers whose grandchildren will go back to Russia in body bags because of Putin's foolishness in wanting to reestablish ancient Russia. So in my mind's eye she is 82. Although data for the early 1940s on life expectancy in Russia have been lost due to the war, she's lived beyond the average. In her formative years she would have been nutritionally deprived. She's educated but lost her government job and pension when the USSR collapsed. I don't blame her for not believing her government run news or Putin about what's going on in Ukraine. She doesn't even have a tradition of a free and honest press; I do/did and can't believe mine either! In my fictional grandma story, her father (Ivan) died before she knew him in WWII; her grandfather died in the Stalin purges of the 1930s; her great grandparents were children of emancipated serfs and lived through the turmoil of 1905 and 1917.

The corruption of banks

It's bad enough that our taxes fund the deaths of the unborn due to clever politicians' machinations--now our banks and investments with women in the board room are tainted? This is to further entrench the idea that a job can replace a family and the lie that abortion is "women's health care."

 
"One of America's largest banking corporations [Citigroup] is reportedly shelling out cash [for travel] to help employees circumvent state abortion laws." (The Blaze)

You may recall, this is how we ended up with employee benefits tied to jobs, which then later were assumed to be necessary for all. After WWII when there was a shortage of good workers with salaries and wages frozen (The Stabilization Act), larger companies began offering paid health insurance to circumvent government laws.

Two years ago during the Covid war. . .

Looking back two years ago, Ohio had 67 cases of Covid-19 and zero deaths. And yet on social media and main stream media Trump's enemies were saying president Trump should have been taking action in December 2019! They'd decided by March to side with Communists and claim he was a racist for calling it a Chinese virus even though a month before that was the term the media used. After three years of insulting him, calling him a traitor, demented, deplorable, not my president, racist, etc. they flipped completely and claimed he should have known more than all the bureaucrats, academics, scientists and career politicians who study and make laws and regulations about viruses and infectious diseases. These are the same folks who ten years before gave Obama a complete pass on the Swine flu epidemic. These are the same people who sued the president every time he tried to close our border, then howled when he didn’t shut down the economy six weeks before the lethality of Covid was known. They assigned to Trump the powers and intelligence of a deity or maybe just a dictator. Then when he kept his word about funding a vaccine within a year, they ridiculed him, said they would never trust it because his fingerprints were on it, and turned around to take the credit and mandate its use.

Now we're in a new kind of war (or the old kind) and Biden is negotiating with Iran using Russia as the intermediary to restore Iran's power to develop nuclear weapons. We need to stop calling Biden demented and compromised, and acknowledge he's the worst snake in the grass, worse than Putin, and the most evil destroyer of our country we've ever faced (and all with the same lies from media and Big Tech that worked against us in the Trump administration).