Opus 2017-303: Headlines: You Can Run but You Cannot Hide

Or as I used to tell students who thought they could get away from me, “I know where you live”.  The context of my observations is an article in the Washington Times talking about parents pulling their children out of a school that taught a lesson on accepting transgenders.  The parents only found out about it because the children told them.  It used to be sex education that the schools hid, now it is creative sexuality that gets the nod.  Most parents don’t spend much time talking or listening to their children so they still don’t know.

These parents have my sympathy.  This is one of the reasons why we decided to home school our children.  We even avoided Christians schools because of the trend in the church to conform to the world instead of being salt.  What the parents need to understand is that you can’t get away from this stuff.  It is being pushed with dollar signs and jail time.  That is a modern version of the carrot and the stick.  If the school conforms to the demands of the Progressive leftists in education and government, they get a check.  If they refuse they can go to jail.  Sounds like a win/win for the socialists and a lose/lose for America.

A comment by one official should be underlined in red and printed in capitals.

“Rocklin Academy is not the only school bypassing parents to teach children the progressive view of gender identity.”

And of course this was in California.  What is scary is the way in which I see education in Texas going the way of education in California.  The cultural civil war is being fought and only one side is showing up at the battle field.  I think we are finding out what happens if they give a war and nobody comes.  The host of the conflict wins.

Children today are required to have a Social Security Number.  They know where your children are.  When we home schooled we were able to drop off the grid because the kids did not have numbers.  That can’t be done today.  SSN are assigned at birth.  They know who you are and where you are at.  Soon it may be a computer chip like you put in your pet.

666 anyone?

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-302: Headlines: At Last We See Trump Bowing to a Head of State

I don’t know if you have looked at any of the pictures of the devastation left by Hurricane Harvey.  Even if you are not into that kind of thing it might be good to spend some time so that you know whom you are praying for and to thank God for the blessings you are experiencing.

As I looked at the lead article in the Washington Times I noticed that President Trump was shaking hands with Governor Abbott of Texas on his visit to Houston.  My first thought was that it is a good thing Joe Biden did not make it to the presidency or we might have had another one of those foot-in-mouth moments where he asked the governor why he did not show respect by standing up.

My second thought was that we at last see President Trump appearing to bow to a head of state.  In fact, the picture makes it look like he is about ready to kneel.  He even took off his hat.  That is as it should be.  Real American leaders do not bow to foreign kings but in our federal system I could accept the President of the United States showing humility in the presence of the Head of State of Texas.

It must be driving the media crazy that, except for a few debatable decisions by the Mayor of Houston (Democrat), things seem to be going well.  The red-necks got out their boats and monster trucks and rode to the rescue.  The greedy businesses of Texas ponied up space and supplies to help the needy.  Churches are organizing relief and clean-up crews.  In the article it says that victims were cheering the President but I noticed that they did find one guy who forgot to move his truck and was mad at Trump.  It said he was a construction worker who lost his job.  The good news is that there will plenty of work for him in the immediate future.  He probably moved here from California.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-301: Call to Prayer

The President has declared today to be a day of prayer for the victims of Hurricane Harvey. 

How dare he violate separation of church and state like that?  After all, just because George Washington and Abraham Lincoln called for national prayer, who does he think he is?  That gives the left another reason to hate him.

Pray for those suffering.

Pray for those helping.

Stop and give thanks for the blessings you have experienced.  Go ahead, look around you and then go look at some of the pictures of devastation.

If you are going to give, make sure it is to a reliable charity like the Salvation Army, not the ones who siphon the money off to their own pet projects and pay their CEO’s half a million a year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-300: Headlines: The Wrong Side Is the Right Side

An important statement has come out regarding where Christians should stand in the current debate on sexuality and sexual issues.  World Magazine reports on something being called “The Nashville Statement”. 

A summary was given as,

“The statement affirms marriage only as a covenant between one man and one woman and denies that God designed marriage for homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous relationships. The statement also says God designed humans distinctly male and female, and a homosexual or transgender self-conception is not ‘consistent with God’s holy purposes in creation and redemption.’”

That sounds totally consistent with the Bible I have been reading, but of course there are many people who view the Bible as something to be revised and redacted to fit current trends.

The key criticism seemed to be,

“Opponents argue the Nashville Statement and its signatories are on the wrong side of history.”

They are right but what they are overlooking is that Biblical Christianity has always been on the “wrong side of history”.  As the Apostle Paul said,

(Romans 12:2 KJV)  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

That is why the church has been persecuted down through the ages and is still being persecuted.  That is why the devout within the church have been persecuted and are still being persecuted.

Although it is a significant statement for our times, for those who are Bible believing Christians this statement is a ho-hum, “tell me something I didn’t already know” item on the level of January 1 is New Years Day.  To those trying to make their Christian faith a comfortable adjunct to popular culture it comes as a frontal assault.  They will need to decide which side they are really on, Almighty God or the ACLU.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-299: Headlines: Why Have a Trial When the Jury Is Rigged

Like most reporting coming from modern journalism, everything is innuendo and insinuation, even from the Washington Times.  That being said it seems like there is some solid ground for thinking that James Comey wrote his exoneration of Hillary Clinton in the e-mail investigation before key witnesses had been interviewed.  His mind was made up and he wanted it to be clear before he was confused by the facts.  Two senators seem to be pursuing the issue and in a letter to FBI director said,

“‘Conclusion first, fact-gathering second — that’s no way to run an investigation,’ the senators wrote...’”

The problem is the government and the news media seem to work this way.

If the accusations are true then there should be arrests, indictments and trials.  If it is all a smoke screen it seems that there is an awful lot of smoke for no fire.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-298: Lasts: Blood Donations

I have been donating blood for years.  It never bothered me getting stuck by the big needles.  They tell me I have good veins. What made it hard was that little prick to check for iron content.

Evidently that is at an end.  The radio was calling for blood donations in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and reminded me it had been awhile.  After a half hour of filling out forms and such I was told that I could not give because of a medication I am taking.  They said if I go two days without taking it, I can come back.  Can I go two days without the medication?  I think it could be done.  My wife starts screaming at the thought.  I will ask the doctor and see if he screams.

It would seem to me that there are people in need who could use my blood in spite of the medication, but again, we run into the legal world where people sue you even if you are trying to save their lives. 

So, no more blood sharing.  I will ask the doctor, but even if he says “yes”, I am not sure my wife can handle it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-297: Firsts: Entitlements

Mark your calendars.  Today we move into the tender hands of Medicare.  It will be a matter of learning a new set of rules and habits.  The doctors we have been dealing with in Texas don’t think it will be a problem.  We are suddenly babes in the woods.

One of the things that was not clear to us about Medicare is that, just like regular insurance, you can opt in for different types of programs.  We have always been able to stay away from HMO plans and it looks like we will be able to do that still.  Whatever it is like I still think of all those who have been left in the lurch by a combination of bad decisions such as a vacation instead of health care, government interference in the free market through regulations and mandates, and lawyers that make doctors unwilling to take risks out of fear of lawsuits.

Either way, I am now on a government program.  Please keep paying your taxes.

homo unius libri