How to witness with the little things--advice I gave 7 years ago

St. John Paul II: “No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.” Little things mean a lot. Say grace when you're eating in a restaurant, the same as you would at home. Be visible in your thankfulness for everyday gifts. Wear a cross and be prepared to tell others your testimony if asked--just be sure it's about Jesus and not just you. Some people place a bumper sticker for their church, para-church organization or Christian media. It's especially good if there's a bit of rust or a dent you'd like to cover. I found our local station (820 a.m. in Upper Arlington, OH) because of a bumper sticker. How refreshing to find inspired and interesting talk radio by women. Be prepared to give a pleasant greeting--God bless you. Have a blessed day. James Isenhart always greets me (on FB) with something short and inspirational. He's doing something small, yet huge, for Jesus reaching people who maybe haven't had a kind word all day. Adrienne Ross (on FB) is another--although she has many topics, she never fails to glorify God after a wonderful service at her church. When we're not commiserating about politics, I love the resources Joan Shaw Turrentine (blog friend) directs me to. My cousin Gayle never fails to find just the right Bible verse to encourage me in e-mail. And when you ask for prayers, I always stop right away and do that. You benefit us all by asking--don't be shy.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike family vs. Biden

The Biden administration is deporting a Christian family from Germany who legitimately fears persecution and should qualify for asylum, while allowing 99 percent of illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S., most of whom likely do not qualify for asylum.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike reportedly fled Germany in 2008 because they were threatened with prosecution and $9,000 fines for homeschooling their five children. The couple and their family have lived in Tennessee and filed for asylum. The family has thrived in the U.S., including having two children who are American citizens and two other children who married American citizens. Unfortunately, the U.S. authorities denied their asylum claim in 2013. After the Obama administration intervened, the family had been able to stay in the U.S. under an “indefinite deferred action status.”

Biden Admin Deports A Christian Family, But Not Illegal Immigrants (thefederalist.com)

New Data Reveal Biden Administration’s Failure to Remove Over 99% of Released Illegal Aliens, Fueling Border Crisis Concerns | House Judiciary Committee Republicans

Debbie Stradley, October 3, 2023

We met Debbie just four years ago.  Her mother lives across the street and had told her about our son Phil's diagnosis of glioblastoma in October 2019.  Debbie came over immediately and wrapped me in her comforting arms--we'd never met.  I found out then that she had metastatic breast cancer.  She's fought bravely for many years, and I'll never forget her kindness to a stranger.  I knew her husband from the veterinary college at Ohio State.

Debbie Stradley Obituary - Columbus, OH (dignitymemorial.com)

Debbie Stradley passed from this life on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Debbie was born in Bethesda, Maryland on May 23, 1959 to the late George and Patricia (Barratt) Dent. Debbie grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and later attended The Ohio State University studying industrial design. Later in life she returned to college and received a B.A. from Cedarville University with a major in Bible/biblical studies. In addition to being a chaplain for several years with Mt. Carmel Health System, Deb continued her role of a care giver in church leadership and beyond, always putting the interests of others above her own. Her zeal for life and her authentic gift of compassion touched many lives. Among her many passions were love of nature, gardening, photography, design and scuba diving. She loved her many dogs and cats. Debbie will be deeply missed by her husband of 35 years Daniel Stradley; her brother Kit (Lisa) Dent; her nephew and niece George and Grace Dent; her stepmother Carole Dent; and many others. Memorial service will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, October 16, 2023 at SCHOEDINGER NORTHWEST, 1740 Zollinger Rd, Columbus, Ohio 43221, immediately following the service a Celebration of Life Reception will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 at SCHOEDINGER NW. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Madison County Vineyard, 106 Olive St, London, Ohio 43140. Please visit www.schoedinger.com to share memories and condolences.

The moral equivalency

"I saw a short video of Jeremy Bowen of the BBC interviewing an officer at Kfar Aza, one of the border towns which was overrun by Hamas terrorists. Mr Bowen was initially concerned about the victims but was quick to query the wisdom of an incursion into Gaza given the risk of civilian casualties. It is as if Israel is the loser in some cruel game, where the opponent – Hamas – can come in, murder, rape and kidnap civilians, but Israel is not allowed to take any responsive action because of the risk to civilians in Gaza." (Robert Festenstein, blog, Times of Israel)

Painful thoughts on the attacks on the Jewish state

October 13, 2023

I was aware of the physical frailties of old age—my parents lived to 88 and 89, my four grandparents late 80s and early 90s, and my great grandparents late 80s. I knew them all. I also knew my husband’s parents, grandmother and his step-grandparents all living to mid-80s and early 90s. Today is my brother-in-law’s 100th birthday. What I didn’t expect was this feeling of helplessness.

I didn’t expect to feel the promises of God’s mercy and caring to ring so hollow. After all, most of these dear ones of my past had lived through the Panic of 1893, the Spanish American War, WWI, The Spanish flu epidemic, the Great Depression, the scourge of polio, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I even called my Dad on 9/11 for some comfort. Maybe they felt as helpless as I do now, and never mentioned it?

Today I was reading Psalm 25 in my morning devotions. I thought about those beautiful words such as TRUST, TRUTH, SALVATION, MERCY, LOVE, GOODNESS, UPRIGHTNESS, FAITHFULNESS, PARDON, FRIENDSHIP, COVENANT and FORGIVENESS. I couldn’t help but think back to Saturday’s assault on civilians in Israel. Where was God? Where were our elected politicians, our counterintelligence, our high-tech smarties who can shut down any opinion about Covid or pronouns they don’t like, but couldn’t find “chatter” of killers of Jews? It was Nazis in the ghettos of the 1940s.

What happened to the “rules of war” and the lessons of WWII we heard about in high school and college?

Also, I can't help but think of the silence of our churches—not just about the Israeli/ HAMAS/ Hezbollah/ Iran situation, but my own church's failure to speak out or call a prayer meeting on ANY issue—social, economic or political—from Covid to abortion to local bond issues, to the border crisis to transgenderism. I suppose it's understandable with 35,000 “protestant” and “Bible only” groups many of whom have split on secular issues, including slavery and feminism. It is still an eerie silence for anyone who reads the paper or watches the evening news. It’s possible in the 1930s we didn’t know about the Soviets starving the Kulaks or the Nazis invading Poland and killing Jews until it was too late. Today we have HAMAS uploading their crimes in real time on the internet for all to see. Today we know the U.S. returned $6 billion to Iran who has sworn death to Israel. We've bought their oil for untold billions. We funded this!

There’s an ugly dividing waste land that runs through our wealthy, educated metropolitan congregations. The same Christians who support abortion and “a woman’s right to choose,” sanctuary cities, open borders, climate change laws that hurt the poorest economies, demonization of half of America’s voters and the sexual mutilation of children in the LGBTQ spectrum, also have been willing to excuse over the years Palestinians and deny that the Islamic hatred and beliefs about Israel’s existence is a real threat to Jews and the U.S. It’s the elephant in the sanctuary. Right here in Columbus (specifically 2021, 2014 and this week) there were large demonstrations in support of Palestine and against Israel. Was anything said—prayer—discussion? Is there a direct line from our silence to beheading babies and shooting the elderly at bus stops?

If our churches can’t even object to the Governor or Board of Health about violations of our religious rights in 2020 and 2021 during the lockdowns, how can I even suggest we have the moral authority and strength to say anything about the Russia Ukraine war, or the tribal warfare in South Sudan among Christians, or the Ethiopian crisis, or the invasion by millions at our Southern border, or HAMAS attacking civilians?

Well, I do suggest it. Can I sit through one more Bible study or sermon or hymn and not be sickened by our silence, and my own feeling of weakness while we dither about hiring women pastors (an issue from the 1970s) or how many millions we can raise to keep our buildings up to date?

Mike Huckabee on moral equivalency

 "I caught Brit Hume on Fox News yesterday, making the observation that watching the revolting cheering of the anti-Semitic carnage in Israel has been clarifying, like turning over a rock and discovering all kinds of disgusting moral equivalencies. He said we’re learning that some people we thought just had slightly unusual or “exotic” views actually have quite astonishing views.

That’s a good point, except the insane and violent extremism of the modern left wasn’t a shock to some of us, who’ve been warning about it for years.

For people who haven’t been raised right, who have been failed by the education system and don’t know what morality is, here’s a clue: There is no “moral equivalency” between terrorists who murder, torture and rape innocent people and their victims."

Billions to Iran

Biden/Obama tried to destroy our fossil fuel industry while paying Iran billions for oil--which in turn funds the alliance of Gaza, Tehran and Moscow. He tries to hide his duplicity by attacking half the American voters for supporting Trump, so you won't notice what's going on. And meanwhile, at the gas pump in the days to come and Iran uses its leverage, keep that in mind. Trump made us energy independent.

Lulled by a false sense of security . . .

"The world is a harsh and violent place. Sometimes we forget that and must be reminded. On October 6, Israel in outward appearance resembled a normal country. The military threat from its Arab neighbors had long been reduced to manageable levels. A high-tech boom had generated unprecedented prosperity. Carefree young people danced until morning in the night spots of Tel Aviv. Israelis felt safe enough to invest their considerable energies on sterile political controversies, American-style. These mostly swirled around the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a sometimes Trumpian figure, who, like Trump, inspired wild apocalyptic predictions and acts of symbolic resistance."

And then came Saturday, October 7, a holiday . . . Was Israel Lulled Into a False Sense of Security? | City Journal (city-journal.org)

Biden can't protect Israel's borders or Ukraine's borders or ours

"THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS: NEW DATA AND TESTIMONY SHOW HOW THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OPENED THE SOUTHWEST BORDER AND ABANDONED INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT"

Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement

• Between January 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023, there were over 5 million illegal alien encounters. Of these encounters, at least 2,464,424 had no confirmed departure from the United States.
• During the same period, DHS released at least 2,148,738 illegal aliens into the United States.
• Only 5,993 illegal aliens encountered at the southwest border and placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge were actually removed from the United States during this time.
• A mere six percent of illegal aliens released into the United States were even screened for fear of persecution for purposes of asylum.
• As of March 2023, DHS had removed only 874 of the illegal aliens found to have a credible fear of persecution and whose claims were adjudicated on the merits and denied by an immigration judge.
• An additional 205,473 aliens were released into the country through illegal categorical parole programs.

2023-10-09-New Data and Testimony Show How the Biden Administration Opened the Southwest Border and Abandoned Interior Enforcement.pdf (dropbox.com)

Let me count the ways the Biden regime is a threat to the whole world

1) Used a pandemic to take back the White House using fear, lies and the deep state.

2) Biden bug-out from Afghanistan left behind billions of military weapons and technology,
3) which enriched the Taliban and
4) demoralized our troops,
5) which in turn sent a message to Putin that Biden is a paper tiger controlled by unnamed political forces,
6) which led to the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian people,
7) and threatened all of Europe.
8) Then he gave a 6 billion dollar deal to Iran for "humanitarian aid"
9) a country which has sworn to destroy Israel,*
10) which in turn funded an invasion of Israel's borders (why not since Biden has proven he can't protect our own borders).

I'm a former Democrat. I know the game. I was fooled too. Democrats are the party of the KKK and Jim Crow, the party that coaxes women into killing the next generation while bringing in outsiders to take their place, and then evangelizes them for careers in government and business. The party that can't define "woman" will be happy to send their sons and daughters into another war.

Democrats never waste a crisis. They used the Covid crisis to destabilize our economy, our schools, our health system, our military, and with the help of Big Pharma and Big Tech, our constitutional government putting in place a puppet regime worse than any totalitarian rule in modern times.

So many Democrats have been red-pilled** by their party's lust for power and insane treatment of Trump and they are looking anywhere for a political home (probably not to the weak, sniveling Republicans). They need to open their eyes and assess the damage. Yes, Biden has betrayed Israel, but he betrayed us first.

*"In Tehran yesterday [Oct. 7], members of Parliament chanted, “Death to Israel.” The Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh made a televised speech warning Arab countries that Israel could not protect them—an apparent threat against countries that had signed the Abraham Accords, such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which has been considering normalizing ties with Israel. Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s armed wing, said that his group’s action would at last put an end to Israeli air raids against Iranian and Hezbollah assets in Syria." (The Atlantic, Oct. 8, 2023)

** dramatically transformed, especially by introducing them to a new and typically disturbing understanding of the true nature of a particular situation

Mask research by the CDC--inaccurate

"The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is widely cited but not externally peer-reviewed, serially exaggerated the evidence for mask-wearing among 77 such outside studies it published, according to an independent review by epidemiologists at the University of California San Francisco, the system's health sciences campus.

Just 14% of MMWR studies reached statistical significance and 30% actually studied mask effectiveness. Yet three-quarters concluded that masks were effective, authors Tracy Beth Hoeg, Alyson Haslam and Vinay Prasad wrote in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Medicine, the official journal of a consortium of five associations in academic internal medicine.

 
None of the 77 was randomized, the strongest form of evidence, and just one study each "used causal language appropriately" ("particle filtration on mannequins") or "cited conflicting evidence" (mostly about influenza), they wrote. "The level of evidence generated was low and the conclusions were most often unsupported by the data." "

This is not called science it's called an agenda.

CDC repeatedly misrepresents mask research, mask mandates worsen depression: studies | Just The News

Ellsworth Wareham gives advice on nutrition and long life

https://youtu.be/FX58PyQwrcI?si=3hYjhqTW0FSe6SI9

He was 98 when he made this video, but lived to be over 104.  He's got some good advice on heart disease (his cholesterol was 117) and being a vegan, but most people wouldn't find it acceptable.  I came across this reading about Blue Zones. 

From Wikipedia: Ellsworth Edwin Wareham (October 3, 1914 – December 15, 2018)^[1][2] was an American cardiothoracic surgeon and centenarian from Loma Linda, California who promoted the health benefits of plant-based nutrition.^[3][4]

Queer Theory is big in anthropology

It's shocking how stupid educated people can be. Maybe it's because women outnumber men in college degrees (since 2008). And you can't compromise with them. It's gone way beyond using the correct pronoun with a colleague or not dead naming people, now they must foist their insane beliefs on people dead for thousands of years. We lost the battle when we agreed to use the word "gender" as a biological thing instead of a sick fantasy. Leftists have created a new tower of Babel in attempting to be god. It won't end well.

"We used to say there’s sex, and gender. Sex is biological, and gender is not. Then it’s no, you can no longer talk about sex. Sex and gender are one, and separating the two makes you a transphobe, when of course it doesn’t. In anthropology and many topics, the goalposts are continuously moved. And, because of that, we need to stand up and say, “I’m not moving from my place unless there’s good scientific evidence that my place is wrong.” And I don’t think there is good scientific evidence that there are more than two sexes." Elizabeth Weiss, a professor of anthropology at San José State University, whose panel discussion for the November Toronto conference was deep-sixed as not being "settled science." https://www.city-journal.org/article/dis-empaneled?

There is much to respond to in this portion of AAA’s statement. First, it’s ironic for the organization to accuse scientists of committing the “cardinal sin” of “assuming the truth” of something, and then to justify cancelling those scientists’ panel on the grounds that the panelists refuse to accept purportedly “settled science.” Second, the panel was organized to discuss biological sex (i.e., the biology of males and females), not “gender roles”; pivoting from discussions of basic biology to murkier debates about sex-related social roles and expectations is a common tactic of gender ideologues. Third, the AAA’s argument that a person’s “gender role” might not “align neatly” with his or her reproductive anatomy implies the existence of normative behaviors for members of each sex. Indeed, this is a central tenet of gender ideology that many people dispute and warrants the kind of discussion the panel intended to provide.  (Colin Wright, author of the CJ article)

More on Issue one and the Ohio Constitution

Planned Parenthood, supported primarily by Democrats/Progressives, is a cash only lucrative business for abortion and has a special program (funded by Warren Buffet) for poor and minority women to kill their babies. Its other programs are supported by the government, including contraception. Among the young, contraception has a high failure rate and thus they create a market for the abortions. Clever.

Abby Johnson, a former PP employee, says the Ohio bill (Issue 1) to enshrine abortion in Ohio's constitution has all the earmarks of having been drafted by Planned Parenthood. The slick ads we're seeing on TV are manipulative and contain inaccurate information. (Thepublicsquare.com podcast, 60)

The abortion battle in Ohio

I've been watching all the classy pro-abortion ads on TV (trying to enshrine abortion up to the day of birth in our Ohio Constitution). Excellent production values and heart-rending stories. Mega doses of outside money. It has caused me to wonder about all the rights and choices the babies being aborted won't have in their future.

No, women will still be able to get treatment for miscarriages.

No, it will not affect removing a deceased unborn child.

When a woman's life is at risk and the baby is pre-term, medical intervention can possibly save both.

Ectopic pregnancy (embryo implants outside the uterus) interventions are still necessary.  This is not an abortion.

Don't forget, abortion is the direct and intentional killing of a baby in the womb.  In the past, both parties were champions of the weak and helpless.

What Jesus never said

 

Welfare statistics for 2023 in U.S.

 50 Important Welfare Statistics for 2023 | Lexington Law

There were 70 million people on the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s welfare programs in the United States in 2021 which includes SNAP, housing assistance, unemployment programs and Medicaid. It is higher than military spending. It is estimated welfare spending in 2023 will account for around 14 percent of the federal budget.

How and why we lost confidence in the public health system

"In the end, it took some grandstanding Republicans in Congress to break the logjam of information. In July 2023, the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a trove of emails, text messages, and other interactions between Fauci, Collins, other health officials, and leading virus experts. Other messages were leaked to independent reporters, including Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger. These communications reveal a stunning contrast between those experts’ confident public statements and the doubts and fears they expressed privately.

In dozens of interviews, dating to the start of the pandemic, Fauci, Collins, and others expressed bland assurances that the new virus must have spilled into the human population from a wild animal. The idea that the Wuhan Institute might have been involved was dismissed as “just a conspiracy theory,” in Fauci’s words. But the recently disclosed communications reveal that behind the scenes, many of the world’s top virologists worried that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had leaked from the Wuhan lab. Worse, some feared that its terrifying transmissibility might be due to genetic manipulation."

The Covid Cover-up | City Journal (city-journal.org)

Hurricane Ophelia and Robbie Robertson

AI generated story: "Tropical Storm Ophelia formed on Friday afternoon [September 22, 2023] and quickly strengthened close to hurricane strength1. The storm is set to drench the East Coast this weekend, bringing heavy rain in addition to strong gusty winds, rough surf, and coastal flooding1. Tropical storm warnings are in effect from Cape Fear, N.C., to the Delaware-Maryland border on the Delmarva Peninsula, with storm surge warnings blanketing a similar area1.

The National Hurricane Center reported that tropical storm conditions have the possibility of developing over portions of the U.S. southeast and mid-Atlantic coasts2. The storm will bring danger of life-threatening storm surge, high surf, and rip currents to the mid-Atlantic3. More than 7 million people are under tropical storm warnings as of Friday afternoon3.

Please stay safe and follow the instructions of local authorities."

One of my favorites, Ophelia by The Band. If I had a middle age crush, it was Robbie Robertson. https://youtu.be/xe7y7ByOrwQ?si=eSkqMRUltdO5moMY  He died in August, 2023. Robbie Robertson, guitarist and songwriter of The Band, dead at 80 - YouTube

https://youtu.be/ph1GU1qQ1zQ?si=r1-F8EsESUykKZWm  The Weight.

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

I recently came across the podcast, "The illusion of Consensus" with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Rav Arora. Ep. 13 was an interview with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty whose outstanding career and service as a bio-ethicist at UC Irvine was torpedoed by the censorship of Big Tech and Big Pharma on behalf of the Biden Administration. He's written a book in his "free time," The New Abnormal." The unholy alliance of (1) public health, (2) digital technologies of surveillance and control, and (3) the police powers of the state, the Biomedical Security State. What surprised me was he took a look back to a 1989 conference where the enemy in a pandemic changed from the virus or pathogen to the whole human population who could be vectors. The conference was organized/planned by Dr. Fauci! He's written about that at Substack. He's one of the plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden. It will probably go to the Supreme Court.

The Illusion of Consensus: Episode 13: Dr. Aaron Kheriaty On The Violation Of Bioethical Principles During The Covid Pandemic on Apple Podcasts

Dr. Fauci's Amnesia - by Aaron Kheriaty, MD (substack.com)

The New Abnormal: A Review (catholicexchange.com)