On Being Grateful This Thanksgiving Day

Today, November 27, 2025 is our official Thanksgiving Day.  But while we have one official day, we should practice giving thanks and praise to God every day.  Like so much in our tradition, giving God the thanks and praise he so richly deserves from us was brought down to us by our friends, the Jews, who practiced it and preserved it so that when the Messiah came into the world, the world was set up to receive Him.

So, it is fitting that the best Thanksgiving message today comes from Yael Eckstein in an article at Townhall.com entitled Hineni: Thanksgiving's Answer to Ayeka. As we learn in Eckstein's article, "Ayeka: means "where are you?" and "hineni" means "here I am" in Hebrew. But knowing this doesn't convey the full spiritual meaning. That you only get by first having an attitude of gratitude.

This Thanksgiving, my heart turns again to the quiet strength that comes from gratitude, not for what we wish we had, but for the blessings God has already placed in our lives.

In a world of constant comparison and societal pressures, it is easy to forget this spiritual truth. In the Jewish tradition, we observe gratitude not only as a feeling, but as a response to a sacred question.

That question is Ayeka? Where are you?

It is the first question God poses to humanity in the Garden of Eden, and it continues to echo through the generations. It is not a request for an exact location. It is a calling: Where are you in this moment? What do you decide to stand for when the world around you feels uncertain, frightening, or unfair? Who are you choosing to be?

And the answer our tradition gives us is the answer of our forefather Abraham: Hineni. Here I am.

Hineni reminds us that everyone can do something. Everyone is empowered. Hineni is the language of faith in action, even in the hardest times. It is the courage to step forward even when the path ahead is uncertain. When there's nowhere left to go but to jump into the abyss of the unknown. It is answering God’s call not because life is easy, but because we know He walks with us, especially during the tough times.

Seen through the lens of Hineni, Thanksgiving is not just a holiday on the calendar that comes around once a year. It is part of a daily spiritual practice – a way of standing before God with presence, purpose and an open heart. And it is often in the moments when gratitude feels the hardest to find that we need it the most.

Before you have your family gathering, your turkey and ham, and sit down to watch football, I urge gentle readers to read Eckstein's article and consider all the many blessings he has given us, and how we might bless others as a result.

A Bargain or a Trap

 Here's the last one for today. At Alt-Market.us Brandon Smith has an article entitled Is Global Technocracy Inevitable or Dangerously Delusional. The so-called tech geniuses and gurus believe that computers will eventually take over the world. Through Artificial Intelligence, the machines will be in charge. But Smith notes that it is entirely in our hands, as it has always been. We can choose to cut the cord, to leave our devises at home. We don't have to live as slaves to this iteration of "world domination."

The bewildering truth behind human technological enslavement is that it is impossible without the voluntary participation of the intended slaves. People must welcome technocracy into their lives in order for it to succeed. The populace has to believe, blindly, that they cannot live without it, or that authoritarianism by algorithmic consensus is “inevitable.”

For example, the average person living in a first world economy voluntarily carries a cell phone everywhere they go at all times without fail. To be without it, in their minds, is to be naked, at risk, unprepared and disconnected from civilization. I grew up in the 1980s and we did just fine without having a phone on our hip every moment of the day. Even now, I refuse to carry one.

Why? First, as most people should be aware of by now (the Edward Snowden revelations left no doubt), a cell phone is a perfect technocratic device. It has multilayered tracking, using GPS, WiFi routers, and cell tower triangulation to track your every step. Not only that, but it can be used to record your daily patterns, your habits, who your friends are, where you were on any given day many months or years ago.

Then there’s the backdoor functions hidden in app software that allows governments and corporations to to access your cell’s microphone and camera, even when you think the device is shut off. The private details of your life could be recorded and collated. In a world where privacy is being declared “dead” by boasting technocrats, why help them out by carrying something that listens to everything you say and chronicles everything you do?

Like Mr. Smith, I grew up at a time when there were no computers. We all got along just fine. We used paper maps to get around. We went to the library for information. We employed slide rules to perform calculations.  We actually wrote down things on paper with ink delivery devises called "pens." Young people are fascinated with fountain pens and often ask me to demonstrate one. My point is that we can live without a lot of this stuff. Indeed, in many ways our lives were better, if less convenient, then. Convenience is only worth so much. It is certainly not worth your freedom and your soul.  They are offering you a bargain, but it is also a trap.

Grab a cup of coffee and read the whole article. it is well worth thinking about it.

A Christian Revival

 It seems that today is my day for disagreeing with the story title writers at the American Thinker This time it is the article entitled God Is Back by S. R. Piccoli. God has always been there, will always be there, and constantly calls to people to come to Him. We are the ones who stray, like lost sheep, from His embrace. The title of the article should have been "People Flocking to God."

There. Having fixed the author's title for him, let me note that I have noticed the same thing, though I did not have the statistics. In my own congregation, I have seen an upswing in new members, both couples with children and single men. (The phenomenon of men entering the church without women is something I have not thought enough about, being too old and too married for that sort of thing. But if the number of single women who believe themselves to be oppressed by society and the "patriarchy," and voted for Mamdani are any indication, there is a huge lack of gratitude among our young women today. If young women want to see patriarchy, they should take a hard look at Muslim societies. Women are considered the possession of a man, to be bought and sold like slaves.)

The revival of Christianity among both young people and intellectuals is good news. We will need them to fight off the coming Muslim attempt to conquer the West. I have noted many times here that Islam is not from God, but is from the devil himself. The followers of Islam, like their father, build nothing, invent nothing, make nothing. They only destroy. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Christian God, created us, sustains us, and builds us up. Christians, like their Father, invent, build, and attempt to make the world better. Even Richard Dawkins admits he would rather live in a culture based on Christian principles.

Understand that the Church Christ founded will never fall, so whose side would you rather be on?

Nick Fuentes: Man of the Left

 Joseph Ford Cotto has an article claiming that Nick Fuentes proves 'No Enemies to the Right' is suicide for the GOP. I read the article at the American Thinker, and it does get better, but seems to avoid the obvious. So, let's back the truck up a bit. Let us note that Nick Fuentes is not to the right of the GOP. He in fact is a part of the Marxist Left. He is wacky, emotional, his principles are not well thought out, but he is of the Left. He praises Hitler and Stalin for crying out loud.  We have no problem declaring him, and anyone who follows him an enemy. We don't want him anywhere near Republican politics. Period.

One can talk good sense to the vast majority of Republicans and conservatives, however. To them, the message is clear. There is no moral, political, or strategic justification for allowing Fuentes or his followers anywhere near GOP and right-leaning institutions. They must be screened out of every respectable, or even quasi-respectable, non-lefty function, media enterprise, political campaign, donor network, youth organization, party organ, political action committee, and think tank without hesitation or apology.

So, Cotto has it correct in the end, except that he allows himself to believe the old canard that Hitler and the Nazi party were of the Right. They were not. Perhaps they could be considered to the right of Stalin, but they were still Socialists and of the Left.  Reagan's 11th Commandment does not apply.

Man Bites Dog Stories

Well, here's something different...way different.  This is a man bites dog story if ever there was one. Apparently, in Western North Carolina, a bald eagle dropped a cat through a motorist's windshield. You can find the story at Sky High Surprise: Bald Eagle Hurls Cat At Unsuspecting Motorist.

These are things you and I can't explain. It is like the time that a little bird, a type of parrot, landed on Mrs. PolyKahr's shoulder. It was obviously someone's pet, but whose? Having had parrots before, we put him in a proper cage, fed him the proper diet, and put up posters around asking if anyone knew to whom he belonged. After about 7 months or so, we had decided that he was ours, when our little bird needed the care of a veterinarian. It turned out that the original owner had taken the bird to that particular vet, and so eventually bird and owner found themselves together again.

One can't make this stuff up. Really, these things are just too freaky.

The Three Estates of Man

 I have spoken about what this thing called "conservatism" is all about.  In the past, I have differentiated conservatism from traditionalism.  Traditionalism often masquerades as conservatism, but they are not the same thing.  Conservatism conserves our founding principles, as contained in our Constitution.  Traditionalism is conserving what has been, no matter that it was originally a radical position. Being conservative requires discernment to know the right path.  Sometimes conservatism is traditionalism, but sometimes it requires us to try new things to achieve old ideas.

Jenna Ellis presents us with an even deeper idea of conservativism in her piece at Townhall.com today entitled Real Conservatism: Pursuing What God Ordained. My previous definition of conservatism was essentially political, and to some degree materialist. Ellis points us to an apolitical conservatism with which we can combat all forms of ideology and materialism by following God's original plan for us.

Ellis opens with a warning for us old dogs. That warning is that young people have grown weary of the usual guff the movement conservatives give them. They have become wary of traditional institutions which they see as corrupted. Ellis is correct in her assessment. And an old dog still can learn new tricks. Each of the "institutions" started out as something new once upon a time. But many have outlived their usefulness to conservatives.  They need to change or be reprogramed to serve a new generation:

For years now, the so-called “New Right” has expressed a deep and growing distrust of America’s institutions. And honestly? They’re not wrong to feel that way. Every generation eventually realizes that the shiny buildings and bureaucratic titles we’re told to trust are, in reality, just man-made structures run by flawed people. Washington think tanks, legacy media, universities and even parts of our own political machinery have squandered their credibility.

But in reacting against the failure of man-made institutions, too many conservatives — especially younger ones — have started believing the entire conservative project is obsolete. They look at the GOP establishment clinging to “Reaganism” in 2025 like a security blanket or nostalgically quoting the Founders without offering any path forward and understandably wonder whether the future belongs to populists who burn everything down or technocrats who want to rebuild everything from scratch.

Both sides are making the same mistake: they’re acting like institutions are the problem.

But the real problem is the wrong institutions.

Conservatism was never about “conserving” whatever man happened to build. Conservatism was — and must again be — about conserving what God ordained: the permanent institutions that He designed for human flourishing.

So, what are the God ordained institutions that are designed for human flourishing?

There are three institutions Scripture establishes:

1. The Church, tasked with proclaiming truth.

2. The family, the foundational unit of society.

3. Civil government, designed not to create rights but to secure pre-political rights endowed by our Creator.

Everything else — parties, agencies, bureaucracies, schools, media, “experts,” political influencers — is downstream from human ambition and human failure.

Ellis here notes what Luther described as the 3 estates of man: the State, the Household, and the Church.  One has specific duties in all three.  So, in our culture, voting is a part of our civic duty under the State as well as paying taxes and defending its borders.  We also have specific duties under our Household.  For instance, earning a living, leading prayer and worship, nurturing children and so on.  Regular church attendance is also a part of a man's responsibilities.  All three estates have been under siege for at least 100 years.

I would note that I have voted in every election since Nixon became president. In all that time, for the most part I have held my nose and voted for the least bad choice. For the most part that has meant voting Republican, even though I acknowledge that the Republican party is the stupid party, able to snatch defeat from the mouth of victory. Right now, the Democrat party, always the evil party, is in disarray. But they will eventually right themselves and move to the center again. We, as conservatives need to focus Church, family, and achieving a civil government that secures our God given rights.

Update: Watch Modernity is about to collapse. Richard the Fourth comes from a British perspective, but puts his finger on the source of our troubles. Man made ideologies are, not surprisingly, materialist and seek worldly things rather than sacred things.

Socialism Always Fails...Always

 Late yesterday, at the American Thinker D. Parker had a great post entitled The running gag, the leftists lie: 'Socialism has never been tried before'. As Parker notes in his post, socialism has actually been tried many times over hundreds of years, and has...failed...every...time. He notes, socialism started in this country with some of our forebears. For example, the Mayflower colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts nearly starved to death under collectivism. They had made all land common property and expected the people to all give their utmost to ensure the common good. After all, this was a Christian colony.  Trouble was that each person expected someone else to do the hard and dirty work. It is the tragedy of the commons so lamented among environmentalists, where when everybody owns it, nobody worries about conserving it.

Parker describes a sampling of socialist experiments that have taken place in the United States over the last 200 years. None of these were the totalitarian variety. All were entirely voluntary. They did not survive. And little wonder. Like the pilgrims' experiment, when people realize they will get the same as everyone else no matter how hard they work, no matter whether they have good ideas for improving things, they slack off. It is human nature. People will work for their family, for themselves, and a few will work for altruistic reasons. But generally, nobody works for nothing. Indeed, this is called slavery.

So much for the running gag that is the leftist lie: Socialism has never been tried before. It’s been tried everywhere, including the birthplace of AOC, and it’s never worked in 200 years. That’s a consistent record of failure that the left needs to be ashamed of, once you consider the mass murder and misery that always accompany these socialistic schemes.

If you are not familiar with the socialist experiments Parker mentions, it is an interesting exploration. If you happen to be leaning towards socialism, it is worth your while to study them and ask yourself if the current crop of socialists has proposed anything different? If not, how will the current politician succeed where the ones in the past failed?

As far as "capitalism" goes, it is just the way business has always been done. It is trading something you have for something you want more. Merchants would load a ship with, say, grain, wine and olive oil, and hope to trade these for copper, iron, and perhaps spices or luxury goods. In the process, the merchant hoped to make a small profit to provide for his family and be able to purchase his next shipload of goods. The problem with our current "capitalism" is that it has become crony capitalism which is actually corporate socialism. If politicians can note that a business is "too big to fail," with a straight face, they should seriously think about breaking that business up.  Oh, and as we are learning from the collapse of the EV market, you can't sell something nobody wants without government mandates.

Please read the whole post.

You Can Not Be Left and Be Christian

I have said it, but I have never heard anyone else say it.  You can not be a disciple of Christ, and call yourself a Christian, and be a leftist.  There are many reasons for this.  But the most glaring reason is that the Left views abortion like a secular sacrament. Abortion is child sacrifice, the same as what the Bible describes as passing their children through the fire.  God ordered the Israelite armies to destroy cities that did this.  He ordered them to destroy men, women, children and even animals.  He did not want anything to remain of such people.  What do you think he thinks of us?  In any case, I agree with the speaker in this video.

I would note that there are some commenters who think that Christianity is separate from such things. They want to have it both ways. They talk about being a progressive Christian. I agree that the Right is not universally on the side of Christ. But the Left is pretty universally against Christ and on the side of the devil. You can not be neutral. You can not sit on the fence. And, oh by the way, God is not your co-pilot. You must be on Christ's side in all things, or you are lost.

Please go watch the video. It is short.

When Will Ford Motor Company Re-learn What Its Founder Knew

 As the United Nations meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-30) meets in Brazil, Mike McDaniel notes that Ford Motor Company continues to lose $132,000 on each Ford F-150 Lightening sold.  That is an amazing amount of money being wasted, really being misappropriated.  It is a common mistake people make.  Having spent a great deal on a losing scheme, they then spend more in hopes of saving what has already been spent.  Instead, they should look at money spent as sunk costs and coldly cut off any further expenditure.  In this case, Ford executives should recognize, as the American car buyer has, that an electric truck is not going to work...at least for now.

McDaniel notes:  

Lightning MSRPs have been as high as $90,000. Is that $132,000 on Ford’s production cost, or on the MSRP? What company can possibly lose that kind of money and remain in business? And why haven’t Ford shareholders stormed corporate HQ with torches and pitchforks?

I write this as an owner of two conventionally powered Fords. They’re fine vehicles I plan to keep for many years to come, so I have an interest in Ford’s continued success.

Ford’s EV losses to date in 2025 have been equally catastrophic:

The move comes after Ford’s electric vehicle business, Model e, lost another $1.4 billion in Q3. Ford’s EV unit has now lost $3.6 billion through the first nine months of 2025.

Around $3 billion of the loss is due to its current EVs, such as the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E. The other $600 million is for investments in next-gen electric models.

And which “next-gen electric models” might those be? The Lightning has been continually hyped as a wonder vehicle, but when owners asked it to do truck things like tow trailers and carry heavy loads, it woefully underperformed. All EVs have range problems, particularly when it’s cold, on anything but flat land, when bucking headwinds, and when they dare travel at highway speeds. Adding 1000 pound+ batteries to already heavy vehicles worsens those problems. Adding to the fun is using electrical accessories like heaters in winter makes annoying range problems potentially deadly. Ford recommends Lightning owners use only their seat and steering wheel heaters in winter. That’ll keep the frost off the windshield.

Automobiles did not originally have heaters in them. My 1933 Plymouth had an aftermarket heater installed, which made riding more comfortable. In the late 1950s, my dad had a Jeepster that didn't have a heater, or if it did, it wasn't effective. I remember riding in the winter in that car and freezing until we got to our destination. So, it seems the F-150 Lightening is taking a step backwards in technology, which doesn't add anything to the sales pitch.

It appears that with Trump II, the free market is again prevailing without lunatic leftists putting their thumbs on the economic scales. Ford, and the rest, appear to be dimly realizing they need to make vehicles the public wants at prices they can afford and which turn a profit.

Who coulda thunk it?

Well, Henry Ford, for one.

The Future of AI Is Not Heaven on Earth

At the American Thinker today there is an article by Vince Coyner entitled Elon's & Joe's Not-So-Excellent Adventure: The Delusion of an AI-Driven Nirvana. In the article, Coyner makes clear that Elon Musk and Joe Rogan have no idea about human nature. They speculate that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon eliminate most jobs as it takes over the world, thus freeing humans to "find meaning." It will be yet another heaven on earth, in their opinion. Coyner accepts their premise that AI will eliminate most jobs, but thinks it will bring about something more akin to hell that heaven.

The AI nirvana about which Musk and Rogan wax will likely be anything but. I think the most likely outcome of untethered AI is that mankind ends up in bondage and is then eliminated. Once AI has control over pretty much everything, it will see humans as a necessary evil to be tolerated, albeit temporarily. The number of humans necessary to maintain the system will be few, so AI will simply eliminate the excess. Then, once those few are no longer necessary, they will meet the same fate.

Interestingly, I have been noodling on this topic myself, but have come to somewhat different conclusions. Let me explain. Recently, I read a book by Charles Murray, which was recommended by American Thinker editor Andrea Widburg entitled Taking Religion Seriously. Murray is a public intellectual, working for a "think tank" who has written many papers and books. Among them is The Bell Curve. So, with that as background, it is understandable that Murray had had any serious thoughts of Christianity beaten out of him by his peers and professors. It was simply something that smart people didn't believe. But Murray, being an honest intellectual, began to notice evidence that perhaps God might be real, that the Bible might be true, and that Christianity was real and true.

Murray describes in his book the events and evidence that forced him to confront the fact that either Jesus is the Son of God, or else a lunatic and a liar. And if He is the Son of God, then Murray needed to change his beliefs. I will not present all of Murray's evidence here. Instead, I will concentrate on two important types of evidence germane to the topic at hand.

The first is the body of evidence generated by what are called Near Death Experiences, or NDE. If you, like me, spend any time at all on youtube you will have encounter stories of people who claim to have died and come back to tell what they discovered in the afterlife. If you were skeptical, well so was I. Some people having the experience of dying then changing their lives for the better.  They become pastors or make other significant changes in their lives.  All that points to having a very profound experience. One wants to believe that they indeed had the experience they claimed. For others though, the fact of their NDE seemed to be in question as they touted an agenda rather than discussed what it meant for them personally.

Murray points out that these phenomena have been studied and indeed there are books about the topic.

You have probably heard of the phenomenon known as the near-death experience (NDE). First brought to public attention by Raymond Moody in his 1975 book, Life After Life, NDEs have subsequently been the subject of books, articles in technical journals, and masscirculation newspapers and magazines, plus a few movies. They have also been the subject of extensive scientific investigation, including the compilation of databases with thousands of cases.

Murray, Charles. Taking Religion Seriously (pp. 50-51). Encounter Books. Kindle Edition.

What these various books, technical articles and databases have in common is that they verify to the extent verifiable, what these people claimed. For example, after the person was declared dead by competent medical personnel, the deceased who is brought back may remember actions taken, or conversations had, outside of his or her direct presence. These can be verified. Of course, only the person experiencing the NDE knows what else may have happened, that is unverifiable. But what is verified points to something that materialism cannot explain.

At this point I should define what I mean by "materialism." In the broader context, materialism is a belief that everything can be explained by the forces of the material world: matter, energy, gravity, etc. In the context of NDE, materialists believe that mind is a function of the material brain, and that consciousness and self-awareness are also functions of the material brain.

Moving on, there is another phenomenon called "terminal lucidity." In terminal lucidity, people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias will, sometimes, exhibit momentary lucidity again, just before dying. It doesn't happen to all. Again, as with NDE, often care givers will witness this phenomenon, which gives credence to it happening. Often, a person with dementia for many years, who hasn't recognized members of his or her own family will suddenly recognize them, will remember important events, and hold lucid conversations with them. This may be only a moment or may last for an hour. Just as suddenly as it appears, the person returns to their demented state and soon dies.

If you have ever looked at a brain scan of someone with Alzheimer's disease or severe dementia, you will notice that a lot of the brain is no longer there. Thus, it is a puzzle where they suddenly come up with the ability to carry a conversation as if they did not have the disease.

Where all this is leading us to is that human consciousness seems to be larger than our brains alone. Yes, sure, the brain processes a lot of the sensory inputs from our five senses. This is true of all animals. But the special something, which we call consciousness, which no other animal has, seems to be outside of ourselves. Music, art, spoken language, making stories, mathematics and the interpretation of these things are not needed for survival. Our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees have gotten along just fine without them.

Now, materialist thinking is that our consciousness and our mind is a function of the brain alone. In the materialist vision, our thought processes can be imitated by a machine programed with just the right algorithms. Materialists will point out that a machine is much faster than we are, and makes fewer mistakes.  All true for certain tasks.  A machine set loose on the internet, can find and summarize all the existing knowledge of the world. It may even be able to draw hypotheses and suggest new areas for research.  I will grant all of that.

Now the internet has been described as both "the information superhighway" and a sewer. Both things are true at the same time. Judging the veracity of the information AI returns requires human judgement and understanding. A machine cannot and never will be able to do it.

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, smart men though they are, are materialists. They see AI as taking our places. Glenn Beck, though, should not be a materialist, and should understand that AI is a tool, just like any other tool that man uses. It is neither good nor bad. It is not in itself evil. People may misuse AI as they have often misused computers. I am sure the evil party is even now cooking up a scheme to use AI to generate fraudulent votes. It is what they do. But AI will not eliminate all the jobs, and it will not create heaven on earth. That ship sailed with the Garden of Eden. We will have to wait for the Second Coming for that.

The Smiley Face Mask Has Come Off

At the American Thinker today is a short post by attorney Michael C. Hurley entitled Stop Mincing Words which I encourage gentle readers to take to heart. The article quite explicitly states that the Democrats are fighting for their faith, as warped and twisted faith is, while conservatives and Republicans are debating policy positions.

No one, at this late hour, should be unaware of what the stakes are. We are in a spiritual war between good and evil, between the forces of order and the agents of chaos. Full stop. So let’s say so, clearly, without apology or embarrassment. Tell people they’re in a war, and a great many of them will show up to vote. Tell them they’re in a debate over monetary policy and energy development initiatives, and most of them will hit the snooze button and sleep in.

The forces of evil do not fail to understand our program. They are not casting about for a better balance of trade. They know they’re in a war for power, and they intend to win it, which is why they fight so passionately. Abortion isn’t an issue for them. It’s a sacrament. Climate change isn’t a scientific debate. It is a religious world-view that gives their lives meaning and purpose. Politics for the left isn’t an intellectual sport to be conducted within the polite parameters of free speech. It’s an unholy crusade to be won by any means necessary, including censorship, lawfare, defamation, perjury, conspiracy, insurrection and assassination.

...snip...

Unless one believes that the New Testament is a work of fiction or that Jesus was just joshing us in the 24th chapter of Matthew about the days to come, it strains credulity to be incredulous about what is going on around us. When the Pharisees seemingly failed to understand him, Jesus knew the reason why and wasn’t afraid to say so out loud: “Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.” (John 8:43–44)

There might have been a day when the spiritual battle lines in the West were difficult to discern, but no more. Allow me to focus your attention. We live in an age when every leading state and national candidate of the Democrat party, including every former Democrat president, openly supports the genital mutilation of healthy children and the obvious lie that a child can change genders. That, my friends, is the tell. Leave everything else aside if you must, because when a murderer is coming for your children, you do not pause to inquire whether he might also lower your electric bill. You sound the alarm and oppose him with every fiber of your being. When we hear this, we should think of the millstone and shudder.

People talk about the "old days" when supposedly the Democrats and Republicans had the same goals in mind but differed in the method of accomplishing those goals. In thinking back, I don't really think that is the case.  That is just fond remembrance of former times. The Democrats have been the party of the Left for as long as I can remember, and I remember Ike. As far as history goes, the Democrats have been soft on Communism and Fascism since at least Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. We overlooked their misbegotten ideas and dysfunctional policies to our regret. But now the smiley face mask has come off and what is underneath is a devilish monster. We are running out of time to save the Republic. We recognize our fate if we don't turn things around.

Please also read Patricia McCarthy's post at the American Thinker entitled Results are in: American leftists willingly embrace evil. I am sure Satan is dancing around in the coldest part of hell. God save us, I pray, because we are powerless to save ourselves.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Over at Bearing Arms Tom Knighton has an article that points to the absurdity that is the (formerly) Great Britain. According to the article a UK Man (has been) Arrested for Possessing Gunpowder Recipe. My first impression was that there must be more to the story. Surely, Knighton cannot be serious.  Perhaps he had made some gunpowder and loaded it into steel pipes to make pipe bombs. But no, apparently the man was being persecuted for merely writing down the recipe.

Now, I have personally never been tempted to make gunpowder. It is dangerous to do, and in any case if I used black power firearms, manufacturers make much better substitutes today. The original was highly corrosive in addition to being explosive.  But that really isn't the point. The point is that the recipe for gunpowder has been pretty widely known since 1267 when Roger Bacon exposed the (not very closely held) secret to the world. So, where does the Crown get off pretending that it is some top secret, eyes only sort of thing. You can easily find the recipe on the internet, for crying out loud.

Here in the United States, we have a serious DIY culture. People will make their own anything if they think it's cool enough. Despite being the wealthiest nation on the planet, people build their own furniture, make their own clothes, make pottery, take up blacksmithing, or any number of activities that they could just pay for, but would rather do it themselves.

And we celebrate this.

Yes, that also includes people making their own guns and ammunition...

Well, yes, we do celebrate do-it-yourselfers so if you want to make your own gunpowder, be my guest. Especially since inevitably there will be those who say, "it can't happen here." I have seen how that (doesn't) works out:

And before anyone tries the "it can't happen here" thing, remember that some states have tried making it illegal to possess 3D printer files for making your own firearm. That's still just information that is harmless on its own. How long before some ninny here in the States tries to ban reloading your own ammo, followed by banning information pertaining to reloading?

We're not as far away from something like this as we might like to believe.

That's especially true as this was folded under anti-terrorism laws. The specter of terrorism has made our own lawmakers opt for some stupid things in the past, and to forget that freedom is and remains the guiding principle of this great nation, so it's not hard to see this happening here.

Knighton suggests each of us should write down the formula for black gunpowder. So, here it is just in case it suddenly disappears from the internet, though it will remain in old, printed books forever: 75% by weight Potassium Nitrate, 15% by weight Charcoal, and 10% by weight Sulfur. I hereby dare Scotland Yard to come and arrest me.

Built on the Rock

J. B. Shurk has a compelling article today at the American Thinker entitled Christians Persecuted and Killed Around the World in which he points out that Nigeria may be in the spotlight now, but Christians are being persecuted, jailed, and killed in Europe, China, India and other lands. President Trump can not take on the world here, which is what he is doing by threatening military action. Shurk first takes us on a brief tour of the world's hatred of Christianity.

In 2025, there is no part of the world that is safe for Christians. Leftist prosecutors in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States criminalize fundamental tenets of the Christian faith as discriminatory forms of “hate speech.” Chinese communists replace images of Jesus Christ with portraits of Xi Jinping. Hindus beat and murder Christians in India. Islamic nations sentence Christian converts to death. Nigerian Muslims attack Christian churches during prayer services and torture and murder so many Christian worshipers as to constitute genocide. The assassin who murdered Christian martyr Charlie Kirk allegedly did so because he believes that Charlie’s Christian teachings were “hateful.”

It is a dangerous time to be a Christian. Michael Snyder wrote an illuminating article a couple weeks ago entitled “Most of the Population of the World Lives in a Nation Where Christians Are Being Persecuted.” In a sober analysis, he takes the reader on a tour of Christian persecution, torture, and mass slaughter around the planet.

Children in China are prohibited from attending Christian church services, and the Chinese Communist Party rewrites Bible verses to support official pronouncements from the State. Sharing the gospel online is a crime, and Christian pastors are regularly arrested and “disappeared.” In India, Hindu terrorists set Christian churches and Bibles on fire and beat up and murder Christian parishioners. Muslims in Indonesia hunt down Christians as if they were animals. Muslims in Nigeria have massacred or abducted a hundred thousand Christians over the last six years and have destroyed some 20,000 Christian churches and schools. Islamic governments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran discriminate against Christians, punish them ruthlessly for their beliefs, and execute anyone brave enough to convert to Christianity. In North Korea, Christianity is outlawed, and practicing Christians who are discovered are summarily executed or condemned to death in labor-intensive concentration camps.

We shouldn't be surprised by the fact that the world hates Christians. Indeed, Christ warned us saying in John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you." Why does the world hate Christians? Partly it is because of Christ's message. We sin, and God hates sinners. We can not, by anything we do, get into heaven. We stand condemned to hell. Luther thought of our shabby works as being like a big pile of stinking excrement (Luther was blunter, but you get the picture). God cannot stand it and turns his back on us. But Christ, by his death and resurrection has paid the price for our sins. We only have to believe that. Luther likens this to that big pile of stinking excrement covered in snow. But the world somehow wants to do things its own way by its own merit. Sacrifice enough lambs, pray 5 times a day with your head to the ground, whatever.  God doesn't care about these things.  You can go that route, of course, but that way lies sin and damnation. Instead, pick up your cross and follow the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I have mentioned Finland's attempts to subvert Christianity by prosecuting Päivi Räsänen for quoting the Bible concerning the nature of men and women.

In Finland, government prosecutors continue to harass Christians for quoting the Bible. In 2019, Päivi Räsänen — a medical doctor, longtime member of Parliament, Finland’s former Interior minister, and the wife of a pastor — used a Bible verse to criticize Finland’s state church for sponsoring an LGBT “pride” parade. After the prominent Finnish Christian publicly stated that males and females are biologically different, police investigators interrogated her for some thirteen hours, forced her to justify her Christian worldview, and demanded that she publicly apologize and recant her Christian beliefs. Because she would not do so and instead defended the authority of God’s Word, she was criminally charged for illegal “hate speech.” Prosecutors have repeatedly asked Finnish courts to “wipe the internet” of Räsänen’s media appearances and writings, in which she has used her medical education and Christian faith to distinguish men from women and to promote the Bible’s moral teachings.

Although two lower courts have acquitted her, prosecutors have appealed and now argue before Finland’s Supreme Court that quoting the Bible should be considered a criminal offense under the country’s war crimes laws. One of Räsänen’s attorneys, Lorcán Price, argues that the outcome of the case will reverberate across Europe because it addresses directly whether a Christian can publicly express the tenets of Christianity. “Can you speak the truth as you see it freely, even if it might offend somebody, or will you be prosecuted for hate speech?”

All over Europe there are laws that attempt to prevent the Church from speaking out against the evils being perpetrated. People in the formerly Great Britain are arrested for silently praying outside abortion clinics. The Canterbury Cathedral has been desecrated with graffiti. The old joke asking "is the pope catholic" have become serious questions. We now have Muslims praying in the Vatican to their god Satan. Still, as the 19th century hymn, "Built on the Rock" reminds us, this has all happened before:

Built on the Rock the Church shall stand,

Even when steeples are falling;

Crumbled have spires in every land;

Bells still are chiming and calling;

Calling the young and old to rest,

But above all the soul distrest,

Longing for rest everlasting.

Shurk concludes with:

Christ’s followers are suffering around the world. They are hunted, beaten, raped, burned, hanged, and slaughtered. The governments of formerly Christian countries insist on making Christ’s teachings a crime. Chinese, European, and American officials wish to censor the Bible. Christians must find faith and courage to face these evils now. Because much worse is sure to come.

Amen, brother.

Could the pope do more?

 Monica Showalter at the American Thinker has taken note of Trump's message to Nigerian officials that they better start protecting their Christians, who are being slaughtered by Muslim militias. Showalter puts the numbers at 7,000 killed this year alone. You can read her post at After massacres of Christians in Nigeria, Trump does the pope's job for him.  As much as I would like to see Trump send troops into Nigeria, I think it would be seen as Unconstitutional for the government to favor one religion over another. Would Trump send troops in to rescue Hindus, for example?

The pope, however, could do something more tangible than praying, though praying is powerful. Here me out. We have been here before, with Islam conquering huge swaths of Christendom and forcing conversion under threat of the sword. The pope then commissioned the Knights Templar. That was then. Now, the pope could establish a paramilitary force to go into countries like Nigeria to again rescue Christians who are being persecuted. Clearly in addition to being very careful about when and where to use such a force, diplomacy would be necessary. But the notion that Christians should be doormats, or second-class citizens was never intended. I suspect that the pope could get a lot of mileage out of the threat to use these forces in places like Nigeria, Egypt, Syria, or Afghanistan without having to actually send them in.

I haven't fully thought the idea out, but it is something the Vatican, as a sovereign could do. Should he?

A Post For A Sunday

Please read Grateful Calvin's twitchy post at 'I Am Going to Abhor Evil:' Nick Freitas Drops BIBLICAL FIRE on the Left's 'I'm Offended' Arguments. Virginia House of Delegates member Nick Freitas points out that he is glad when people espousing evil are offended by him. And he should be. Every Christian should hate what God hates, and God hates evil.

Please watch the embedded X post to hear Freitas' response to an 'offended' constituent. He has definitely nailed it. It is too bad that he doesn't intend to run again.  Virginia needs more like him.  But I understand. St. Paul tells us in the book of Romans not to associate ourselves with evil. For in doing so, the evil rubs off on us. That is why the LORD commanded the Israelites to thoroughly cleanse the land of Canaan of its former inhabitants. He didn't want any foreign gods being worshipped in His territory.

You will get a kick out of Freitas post, and it's a good way to start a Sunday.