The "Defenders of Democracy" aka Democrats are at it again

They're at it again, and even more viciously. Those "defenders of Democracy" (what a joke) are trying to destroy the First Amendment, shutting down anyone who doesn't buy into the Democrat party definition. With the mainstream media, they call anyone with common sense and love of country "right wing," or "racist" or "homophobe." Don't let them scare you off. They are the bad guys.

https://restorechildhood.substack.com/p/muzzling-mommies-wont-work?

Flying is safer than driving

"In 2020 alone, 30,250 people died while riding in passenger vehicles. Forty-five percent of these were in cars, 34% in light trucks, and 18% on motorcycles.

 
There were 614 serious injuries in the air from 2002 to 2020, an average of 32 per year. Comparatively, Americans suffered about 2.3 million injuries per year in passenger cars and trucks on highways."

https://usafacts.org/articles/is-flying-safer-than-driving/?

Per mile motorcycles are the most dangerous, however, in my opinion, no matter how you travel you are not safe with the latest DEI standards for employment --whether pilots, bus drivers, repairmen, or factory assembly workers. You don't want a diversity hire or union boss guiding your transportation. Merit and skill matter more than ethnic background.

In 2020 although there was a decrease in miles traveled due to the lockdown, there was an increase in pedestrian and bike related fatalities. Another problem our "health" experts didn't think about.

The big three for roadway fatalities:  Alcohol, speed and not wearing a seatbelt.

Low back strain

 From WebMD Low Back Strain Causes, Treatments, Exercises, Prevention (webmd.com)

So what is low back strain? A series of muscles and ligaments in your back hold the bones of your spinal column in place. You can strain these muscles by stretching them too far, causing tiny tears in the tissue. The muscles are then weakened, so they may not be able to hold the bones of your spinal column in place correctly. The spine becomes less stable, causing low back pain.

And because nerves stretch out from the spinal cord throughout the entire body, low back strain can cause pain in areas other than your back.

Low back strain can be caused by:

• Extreme physical exertion.
• Falling.
• Bending or crouching repeatedly.
• Lifting heavy objects if you are not in shape.

It can also be caused by emotional stress, improper posture, being overweight, out of shape, or sitting in the same position for long periods of time. Even a severe cough can result in low back strain.

Ten degrees and cold, but thankful

I keep a gratitude notebook, and despite all my blessings, sometimes I draw a blank. That's when I write down the truckers, miners, USPS, the grocery workers, the linemen, the snow removal employees, and all the other people who showed up when we were forced into a lockdown that didn't work.

And today I'm grateful that last night our son-in-law brought over his folding walker with wheels that he used during his hip surgery recovery. Yesterday about 6:30 a.m. I was sitting at the kitchen table writing in my gratitude journal and felt a familiar pain slowly move up my pelvis. Usually that happens if I've moved furniture, or sneezed or unloaded the dishwasher.  This may be the new "normal."  Back pain for no reason.  So, I'm learning to maneuver it, and have even found a cloth purse to attach to it to carry my cell phone, or even my breakfast in a plastic container.

For this type of back strain, it must be ice and not heat (causes swelling).  Sitting is worse than standing which is worse than lying down. I have a few things on the schedule this week.  A hair cut tomorrow and senior Bible study on Thursday to which I'm supposed to bring the snack. We now have more than 1/4 inch of snow, so that could cause additional problems. My plans for yesterday were to do a number of loads of laundry, so that's been put on hold too.

What is Woke?

Richard Hanania is an American writer and political science researcher. He has written for such publications as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Quillette. He is the author of ‘The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics’

Where Woke REALLY Comes From - Richard Hanania (youtube.com)

00:00 Introduction00:32 The Definition of Woke 04:33 Are Conspiring or Well-Meaning People at It’s Roots? 08:02 How is Wokeness Affecting Law in America? 11:20 The Impact of Social Media on the Woke Movement 17:12 How Can Legal Quotas Be Filled in Certain Sectors? 19:30 Does Disparity Equal Discrimination? 23:17 Can Reparation Ever Be Made for Historical Guilt? 27:45 Fixing the Civil Rights Laws 31:53 Why Haven't Past Republican Presidents Tackled These Issues? 35:52 Have We Reached Peak Woke? 41:49 Richard's Past Writings and Views 47:05 Is the Backlash Worse than the Woke People? 52:38 Richard's Take on the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict 1:00:12 What's the One Thing We're Not Talking About?

Cairo Genizah and the Wisdom of Ben Sira

 The book of Ecclesiasiticus (church book) also called Sirach or Wisdom of Ben Sira is part of the Catholic, Orthodox, Syriac Peshitta, Coptic and African canons, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church with 81 books.  It does not appear in the Protestant canon, having been removed during the Reformation.  Although I've enjoyed reading Sirach when it appears as part of the liturgy, I didn't know about its discovery in Hebrew in 1896 until our book club read Sisters of Sinai, How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice (2009).

https://youtu.be/mSVPUU8unms?si=xgFChUUoM_UOb369   Sisters of Sinai - Janet Soskice on Scottish Twins Agnes Lewis & Margaret Gibson YouTube lecture

18 facts about the Cairo Genizah

"14. The Original Hebrew Ben Sirah Was Discovered There

"Ben Sira is part of what is known as the Apocrypha—works of Jewish wisdom that were not included in the 24 Books of the Hebrew Bible. In fact, it was when two sisters, Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, found a piece of Hebrew Ben Sirah (which they could not identify) that scholars realized what a treasure the Geniza was. This work—quoted numerous times by the Sages—had only survived in Greek. Thanks to the Geniza (and the Dead Seas Scrolls), at least six sections of Ben Sira in Hebrew have been rediscovered."

The Cairo Genizah - Its History and Importance - Chabad.org

The Book of Sirach - Intro (youtube.com) Ben Sira

How the wisdom of Ben Sira has impacted the church (Sirach, Ecclesiasticus, Apocrypha) (youtube.com)

Ben Sira (also known as Sirach or Ecclesiasticus) is one of our most important sources of ancient Hebrew literature. It is also one of 7 books that belong to the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books of the Bible. This great source from second temple Judaism has played an important role to the Christianity since the early church. Our guest, Peter Beckman, is completing his PhD at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario and is a pastor at a Lutheran church. We discuss a number of topics * The placement (or lack thereof) of Ben Sira in the biblical canon * The different names for the book and what they show * The author of Ben Sira * The differences between the Hebrew and Greek versions * The purpose, style, and message of the book of Ben Sira * The unique prologue to the Greek version of Ben Sira * How Ben Sira navigates challenges that people of faith deal with today * How Ben Sira interprets Scripture * The “canon consciousness” of Ben Sira * We have a little debate about literacy and the target audience of Ben Sira * How has the book of Ben Sira been used in the church throughout history up to today in different denominations * How all wisdom should lead to worship and prayer

https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/bibliographies/genizah/search?query=2665&queryType=TITLEID Palestinian Syriac texts : from palimpsest fragments in the Taylor-Schechter collection, Cambridge Digital Library

https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8128 Oxford Dictionary, Ben Sira

"Welcome to www.bensira.org, the website devoted to the ancient and medieval Hebrew manuscripts of the book of Ben Sira. These documents, which are housed in Cambridge, Oxford, London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem, are here presented in a single platform, to allow the scholar and the interested layperson to view these precious texts. To learn more about the remarkable recovery of the once-lost Hebrew original of Ben Sira, and its presentation at our website, click on 'Introduction'. To proceed directly to the images of the disparate manuscripts, click on 'View the Manuscripts'. We invite you to explore, peruse the website, and learn more about the book of Ben Sira, its contents, and its textual history."  https://www.bensira.org/  The book of Ben Sira [website]

"The known and published textual witnesses of Ben Sira in Hebrew are as follows: the five manuscripts discovered in the Cairo Genizah, beginning in 1896; the Ben Sira Scroll from Masada, discovered in 1964; fragments of Ben Sira found in two caves at Qumran (cave 2 and cave 11); quotations from Ben Sira scattered throughout the talmudic and midrashic literature; and the ancient Greek and Syriac translations.

In 1982, another manuscript from the Cairo Genizah was discovered by the Hungarian scholar Alexander Scheiber in the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection (Additional Series) at Cambridge. Scheiber published the manuscript in a Hungarian journal that was not generally accessible to
the scholarly community.4 He identified the new manuscript as belonging to the same source as that of MS D from the Cairo Genizah. . . . Di Lella’s  conclusion is that this is a totally new Genizah manuscript of Ben Sira, which he designates MS F. (Linguistic Innovations in Ben Sira Manuscript F. by Haim Dihi, Hebrew in the Second Temple Period; The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and of Other Contemporary Sources, 2013)  Linguistic Innovation in Ben Sira Manuscript F | HAIM DIHI - Academia.edu

Key Aspects and Themes in Recent Scholarship on the Book of Ben Sira | Markus Witte - Academia.edu

FBI Undercover assets or enemies

"A member of Congress investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol estimates the FBI had 200 undercover assets both inside and outside the building.

“We believe that there were easily 200 FBI undercover assets operating in the crowd, outside the Capitol, embedded into groups that entered the Capitol or provoked entry of the Capitol,” Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., said. " (Daily Signal)

Let's assume they were working on intelligence, and intended to STOP a riot and protect the Capitol. They FAILED. So let's look at plan B. They infiltrated a small group to make it worse by inciting them to riot and encouraging them in order to make Trump supporters look bad. They succeeded.

 
So, let's look at other riots during the Trump administration, like George Floyd in 2020. Those riots were infiltrated by large numbers of undercover assets, because they have informants in every special interest group. Did the government operatives fail or succeed? In the process, many black neighborhoods were torched and black businesses destroyed. Many people were killed or injured in the riots. Insurance companies will be reluctant to serve those areas. People will move out. But it gained huge sympathy for black radicals and launched a sympathy vote and defund police campaign. The founders of BLM sucked in millions in donations. Success comes in many flavors.

 
FBI lost count of number of informants at Capitol on Jan. 6: ex-official (nypost.com)

https://news.yahoo.com/real-takeaway-black-lives-matter...

Arrived and it's really cold today

Dreo Space Heaters for Inside, 2023 New Portable Electric Heater with Remote, 70® Oscillation, 1500W PTC Ceramic Fast Safety Heater with Thermostat, ECO Mode, 12H Timer, Heater for Office, Bedroom.

Bob's Man Cave is always cold, summer and winter. This might help.

A review of the lies and censorship of the last four years

It's hard to keep up. This past week there was news about Hunter Biden, but was it just in 2020 we learned about the laptop? How the information of his selling his father's influence when he was vp was withheld in a HUGE election fraud with the media lying to protect Biden. And the Twitter files and Matt Taibbi being so rudely treated by Democrats? For a quick review of the last four years and how badly Americans have been treated, watch https://www.judicialwatch.org/censored-and-controlled/ It exposes the bro-mance between Big Gov and Big Tech, Big Media, Big Pharma. There are 4 parts. A good review.

Biden's lies about George Washington and Democracy

Joe Biden gave a speech at Valley Forge on January 5. It was embarrassing. He got so much wrong. Who writes his speeches? George Washington never used the word "democracy" at Valley Forge, but good old Joe used the word 29 times! He said it was the whole point of what Washington was fighting for. He said democracy is on the ballot in 2024. No! Democracy is for mobs, and the Founders didn't want that. They designed a Constitutional Republic.** Joe also again for the umpteenth time called a riot at the capitol an insurrection which might destroy the sacred cause for which Washington and his men fought for. He lied about their cause, but he's allowing mobs to roam our streets and demand death to Jews and has not said anything. While funding two wars, he's allowing an invasion at our southern border and is doing nothing to stop it. Both are far greater threats than anything that happened on January 6, 2021.

**A constitutional republic is a form of government in which the head of the state, as well as other officials, are elected by the country’s citizens to represent them. Those representatives must then follow the rules of that country’s constitution in governing their people. Like the U.S. government, a constitutional republic may consist of three branches – executive, judicial, and legislative – which divide the power of the government so that no one branch becomes too powerful.

An analysis of his campaign speech at Valley Forge can be found at thepublicsquare.com .


All reactions:1Sue

Scams are every where

Caution. Don't fall for scams.

This morning I received via e-mail:

"Hello Customer,

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You may need to up󠆚󠆚dat󠆚󠆚e your p󠆚󠆚aym󠆚󠆚ent details though – Click the button below and follow the on-screen instructions"

This one was easy. I don't have Amazon Prime. But you might. Many scams are out there imitating real companies--using believable logos--we recently were caught by one pretending to be our cable provider. I get other e-mails and texts supposedly from UPS, or just a simple, "Hi, I haven't heard from you for a while," or "Did I miss your call" without any name. Don't give any recording or "person" (could be AI) any information like your SS or credit card number.

 
It's a mess to clean up, and they move faster than we can to correct it. There are bad people out there, and they aren't all in D.C.

Fourteen Trillion

$14 trillion. That's what Covid + lockdown cost us. "Workplace absences, and sales lost due to the cessation of brick-and-mortar retail shopping, air travel and public gatherings, contributed the most. At the height of the pandemic, in the second quarter of 2020, our survey indicates that international and domestic airline travel fell by nearly 60%, indoor dining by 65% and in-store shopping by 43%. . . . The toll we estimate that it took on the nation’s gross domestic product is twice the size of that of the Great Recession of 2007-2009. It’s 20 times greater than the economic costs of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and 40 times greater than the toll of any other disaster to befall the U.S. in the 21st century to date." 

COVID-19’s Total Cost to the U.S. Economy Will Reach $14 Trillion by End of 2023 – USC Schaeffer 

And how do you put a price tag on stealing our young people's youth and what they might have learned in school?The mental depression. The drug use. They were the least likely to get Covid yet they may have paid the biggest price.

So much of this was unnecessary. Too many ignorant people were given an enormous amount of power. What can we do to prevent it from happening again.

A Slavery Teaching Act named for Kamala Harris

"The "Kamala Harris Truth in Slavery Teaching Act" was filed Wednesday in both the Florida House and Senate. Under the bill, educators would need to meet several requirements when teaching "the history of African Americans."

The requirements include teaching which "political parties supported slavery," something its authors argue is currently ignored in most curriculums." Of course, that would be the truth about the Democrat Party's involvement in keeping black Americans down. Through the Civil War, KKK, Jim Crow, right up to the 60s and the Civil Rights Act--which wouldn't have passed without Republican support.

 
And if it were me, I'd add the truth about how Planned Parenthood, a campaign front for Democrats, has killed generations of black citizens through abortion campaigning.

Florida bill named after VP Harris would require teaching that Democrats supported slavery | WSTM (cnycentral.com)

Abortion in the U.S.: What the data says | Pew Research Center

I've often said we have 2 parties--the evil party and the stupid party.  Finally Republicans are starting to dish out what Democrats usually do.

Sensible advice to share--Depression tips

We’re heading into the darkest days of winter - it’s important to do self care, even if that’s just getting one thing done in a day.

DEPRESSION TIPS:

Shower. Not a bath, a shower.
Use water as hot or cold as you like. You don’t even need to wash. Just get in under the water and let it run over you for a while. Sit on the floor if you gotta.

Moisturize everything.
Use whatever lotion you like.
Unscented? Dollar store lotion? Fancy 48 hour lotion that makes you smell like a field of wildflowers? Use whatever you want, and use it all over your entire dermis.

 
Put on clean, comfortable clothes.
Put on your favorite underwear.
Those ridiculous boxers you bought last Christmas with candy cane hearts on the butt? Put them on.

Drink cold water.
Use ice. If you want, add some mint or lemon for an extra boost.

 
Clean something.
Doesn’t have to be anything big. Organize one drawer of a desk. Wash five dirty dishes. Do a load of laundry. Scrub the bathroom sink.

 
Blast music.
Listen to something upbeat and dancy and loud, something that’s got lots of energy. Sing to it, dance to it, even if you suck at both.

Make food.
Don’t just grab a granola bar to munch. Take the time and make food. Even if it’s ramen. Add something special to it, like a soft boiled egg or some veggies. Prepare food, it tastes way better, and you’ll feel like you accomplished something.

 
Make something.
Write a short story or a poem, draw a picture, color a picture, fold origami, crochet or knit, sculpt something out of clay, anything artistic. Even if you don’t think you’re good at it. Create.

 
Go outside.
Take a walk. Bundle up if you have too. Listen to whatever birds winter where you are, watch the squirrels, admire whatever lights are in the trees. Go to the mailbox, send a letter, a bill, a card.

 
Call someone.
Call a loved one, a friend, a family member, call a chat service if you have no one else to call. Talk to a stranger on the street. Have a conversation and listen to someone’s voice. If you can’t bring yourself to call, text or email or whatever, just have some social interaction with another person. Even if you don’t say much, listen to them. It helps.

 
Cuddle your pets if you have them/can cuddle them.
Take pictures of them. Talk to them. Tell them how you feel, about your favorite movie, a new game coming out, anything.

 
May seem small or silly to some, but this list keeps people alive.

Abortion statistics, 2023

For the 5th year abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide in 2023, topping infectious diseases and cancer.

Abortion was the top cause of death worldwide in 2023 | Politics News (christianpost.com)

Abortion Statistics - Worldometer (archive.org)

What looks like job growth isn't really

What’s driving American job growth? Wall St. Journal reports that in progressive states, it’s government, social assistance and healthcare. Only a Democrat blue state resident could think that is healthy.  Pay Wall, but it's easily confirmed by checking the Bureau of Labor statistics.

"Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 216,000 in December. Job growth averaged 225,000 per month in 2023, compared with the average monthly gain of 399,000 in 2022. In December, employment continued to trend up in government, health care, social assistance, and construction, while transportation and warehousing lost jobs." Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Summary, December 2023

19,000 college students meet to praise God

Only the Catholic news outlets are covering this story--19,000 college students attend a religious conference. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration and the Pope himself try to fight Traditionals who want Latin Mass and American values. "An even greater number of participants is expected on Wednesday evening, when Catholics from the St. Louis area are invited to join conference attendees for a massive session of Eucharistic adoration. Last year, more than 1,800 local St. Louisans joined in adoration and more than 500 priests heard more than 3,000 confessions in two hours. FOCUS spokesperson Kate Milligan said they hope to surpass 24,000 attendees for this year’s adoration session."

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256423/massive-attendance-enthusiasm-at-fellowship-of-catholic-university-students-conference?

Aging well research was ignored during Covid longdown

This Harvard study (2017) on longevity, good health and happiness isn't surprising. Many other studies have shown similar results. So why was all this research ignored in 2020-2022 when people were denied relationships with family, friends and community and locked inside their homes? Our taxes paid for the research--we should be demanding answer. Power (Biden and Fauci) and money (Big pharma) would be my guess. Over nearly 80 years, Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life — Harvard Gazette

"Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes. That finding proved true across the board among both the Harvard men and the inner-city participants."

"In a book called “Aging Well,” Vaillant wrote that six factors predicted healthy aging for the Harvard men: 

physical activity,

absence of alcohol abuse 

and smoking, 

having mature mechanisms to cope with life’s ups and downs, and 

enjoying both a healthy weight and 

a stable marriage. 

For the inner-city men, education was an additional factor. “The more education the inner city men obtained,” wrote Vaillant, “the more likely they were to stop smoking, eat sensibly, and use alcohol in moderation.”

Why do Democrats vote against our country?

I can't imagine why the Democrats are so fearful of being dragged back to the era of 

personal responsibility, 

merit, 

Judeo-Christian values,

respect for talent, 

self-esteem based on work and skills instead of race, 

true biology and science, 

responsible journalism, 

borders that protect us and not the crossers, 

honest elections, 

universities that educate instead of indoctrinating, 

and two sexes. 

They truly seem terrified of the past, of our roots, of our history. The goals weren't always achieved, and some didn't make it, but it was certainly better than DEI where everyone loses. Most Democrats I know say they are for these things, but vote against their personal values!

David K a former history teacher and writer responds: "Because it takes chaos to get there, and they think they are better than banana republic leaders and will not be subject to their chaos-creating turning on them such as has happened to many others in history, not least of which was the French Revolution. It is all about power, and they are behaving very much like dictatorships, where they use (like Peron, like French Revolutionaries, like Russian revolutionaries) the poor and disadvantaged to gain power, then treat them worse than they were before, along with everyone else except the ruling elite, which gets privilege. Soviet dictators had dachas on the Black Sea, as Brezhnev bragged to Nixon, and Putin still does. Hitler had his Bechtesgarten, Clinton his Martha's Vineyard, and so on."

Irregular relationships and Pope Francis

"The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans (FS), which says it’s possible to give “non-liturgical blessings” to people in “irregular relationships” (divorced and remarried, living together, same-“couples"), on December 18, 2023. The very next day, a photograph of Fr. James Martin, S.J. blessing a same-sex “couple,” who had been civilly married some time earlier, appeared in the New York Times, though the document had warned against that kind of public attention. Ten days later, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, who “identifies as Catholic” and was once a stout defender of marriage, cited FS for his shift to supporting same-sex marriage, saying “even the Church is changing.” "

I don't even know the meaning of several of the English words in this paragraph let alone the Latin! But even as a Lutheran from an anabaptist background I could have told you what the press and liberal Christians would do with it. The same as I knew what legal medical marijuana would do to the market for legal recreational gateway drugs.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/01/02/by-their-fruits/?

Pope Francis allows blessings of couples in same-sex relationships | America Magazine

Doctrinal dicastery explains how, when gay couples can be blessed | USCCB