9/11 reaction 20 years later

I'm not sure why, but the anniversary of 9/11/2001 is hitting me harder than it ever has. I've never been emotional about it before today.

Maybe that's because I was close to things in DC as they were happening, or because of the recent unwinding of our response in Afghanistan, or because I'm thinking about things from that day I had never heard before, or because there are new pressures on our freedoms two decades later.

Last night, ABC World News Tonight included someone mentioning that the Flight 93 passengers intentionally timed their response to make sure their aircraft was over a rural area. That says so much about what they intended to do and what knew might happen. ABC News also played the voicemail of Flight Attendant CeeCee Ross Lyles whose voice eventually breaks when she talks about how she hopes she gets to see her three children again.

Remembering John Bunyan

John Bunyan would not have been socially desirable in his time. He, a Bedford tinker, couldn’t get inside one of the princely castles. 

I was very much amused when I was overseas. They had erected a monument to John Bunyan, and it was unveiled by lords, dukes, and other great men. 

Bears prayer

Ditka called his team in for a prayer. 

Football coaches lead their men in prayer for the same reason God is on the mind of army grunts: because no one knows when the hammer will strike steel. 

A great player in his own era, a hell-raiser and late-night carouser, Ditka found religion in Dallas, under the tutelage of Cowboys coach Tom Landry. 

Echo taps

Patriotism filled the air of New Concord, the small eastern Ohio town where I grew up.

Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Armistice Day were flag-waving holidays of parades and salutes to the United States and to the soldiers, living and dead, who had fought for freedom and democracy.

My father was one of those soldiers. He served in France during World War I, delivering artillery shells to the front on trucks and horse-drawn caissons, and he came home partially deaf from a cannon blast but otherwise unharmed.

He also was a bugler. He blew the bugle for reveille and taps, for mail call and mess call, and when the flag was raised.

At home, on those patriotic days that I remember, Dad was again called upon to play the bugle. He marched in the parade formations when the local veterans from the Thirty-seventh Ohio Division marched down Main Street on Armistice Day, and played the colors when they raised the flag at the American Legion hall at the end of the parade.

But the bugling I remember best was the taps he played on Memorial Day.

A house that is immortal

Moody once said, “Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all—out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal; a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.”

Source: The Overcoming Life by Dwight Lyman Moody

Aiming to be a man fully consecrated to Him

D. L. Moody was not an ordained minister, but was an effective evangelist. 

He was once told by Henry Varley, a British evangelist, “Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to Him.” 

Moody later said, “By God’s help, I aim to be that man.” 

A glorious future

Some think that on the first day we’re converted we’ve got everything. To be sure, we get salvation for the past and peace for the present. 

But then there’s still the glory for the future in store. 

That’s what kept Paul rejoicing. He considered his afflictions, his stripes, and his stonings as nothing, compared to the glory that was to come. He considered those things nothing, so that he could win Christ. 

The right kind of bait

You must use the right kind of bait. Many don’t do this and wonder why they’re not successful. 

You see them try different types of entertainment to try and catch men. This is a step in the wrong direction. 

This perishing world wants Christ, and Him crucified. 

Pull in your nets

I have been asked by many good men, “Why is it we don’t have any results? We work hard, pray hard, and preach hard. Yet success doesn’t come.” 

I’ll tell you why. It is because they spend all their time mending their nets. No wonder they never catch anything. It’s critical to hold inquiry meetings, and pull the net in to see if you’ve caught anything. If you are always mending and setting the net, you won’t catch many fish. 

Who ever heard of a man going out to fish, setting his net, letting it stop there, and never pulling it in? Everybody would laugh at the man’s foolishness. 

Interpreting prophecy

Just before writing some of the most Old Testament-like warnings in the New Testament, in his second letter the Apostle Peter wrote about the nature of prophecy.

He specifically draws a contrast between • something that's made up (“cleverly told fables” 1:16; “a product of human initiative” 1:21) and • something that has the backing of the Holy Spirit (1:21).

He clearly comes down on the side of the supernatural origin in writing, “no prophecy found in Scripture is a matter of the prophet's own interpretation … but it comes when men are moved to speak on behalf of God by the Holy Spirit” (1:21-22).

In other words, the meaning is not up to the man giving it because he is not the origin of it.

Limited man would not come up with God-sized ideas or actions, but he can communicate them.

Defenses are nothing without turning to God

When a people turn away from the Lord, eventually the Lord may appoint a time for destruction (22:5).

The appropriate response is not to celebrate and party.

In Isaiah 22, however, that's exactly what happens. The people have stored up weapons, put their trust in them (v. 8), and don't even use them (v. 3). They built other defenses as well (v. 9-11).

“But in all this you neglected the One who could really save you; You failed to consider the One who actually made this place and established it so long ago” (Isaiah 22:11).

The Devil’s castaways

George Whitefield, standing in his tabernacle in London with a multitude gathered around him, cried out, “The Lord Jesus will save the Devil’s castaways!” 

Two poor, abandoned women outside in the street heard him as his silvery voice rang out into the air. Looking into each other’s faces, they said, “That must mean you and me.” They wept and rejoiced. 

Finding rest

I was in Wales once, and a lady told me this little story. 

An English friend of hers, a mother, had a daughter that was sick. At first, they thought there was no danger. 

Then one day the doctor came in and said the symptoms were very serious. He took the mother out of the room and told her that the child would not live. It came like a thunderbolt. 

Give me the sheep

After being superintendent of a Sunday school in Chicago for a number of years—a school of over a thousand members, children that came from godless homes, having mothers and fathers working against me, taking the children off on excursions on Sunday, and doing all they could to break up the work I was trying to do—I used to think that if I should ever stand before an audience, I would speak only to parents. 

Planted

Plantados tells what communism is like. The contrast to freedom is stark.

Twice the film made an important point that those standing for freedom from communism were standing for freedom in Christ the King. That was mentioned during the first firing squad scene and in the credits. The freedom to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been enemy #1 for communism, sometimes unusually so. Communism is a threat to the soul of man.

Worth more than 10,000 worlds

Twenty-four hours before the rain began to fall, Noah’s ark wasn’t worth much more than firewood. 

But twenty-four hours after the rain began to fall, Noah’s ark was worth more than all the world. 

There wasn’t a man still living who wouldn’t have given everything for a seat in the ark. 

Man + Machine

In 1997, Watson’s precursor, IBM’s Deep Blue, beat the reigning chess grand master Garry Kasparov in a famous man-versus-machine match. After machines repeated their victories in a few more matches, humans largely lost interest in such contests. 

You might think that was the end of the story (if not the end of human history), but Kasparov realized that he could have performed better against Deep Blue if he’d had the same instant access to a massive database of all previous chess moves that Deep Blue had. If this database tool was fair for an AI, why not for a human? 

A symbol of freedom

In 1948 the postwar euphoria that had attended the founding of the United Nations had evaporated, and the Soviet Union directly challenged the United States by blockading West Berlin, a tiny western toehold on the Soviet side of a now-divided Europe. 

The Western powers responded by airlifting supplies into West Berlin around the clock for over a year until the Soviets lifted the blockade. With the establishment in 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance between the United States and its European allies, and the setting up of the rival Warsaw Treaty Organization by the Soviet Union, the stage was set for the decades-long military deadlock of the cold war. 

The ice cream country

The United States became the ice cream country. By 1919 it was making 100 million gallons annually. 

Steamer ships started installing freezer compartments so that ice cream could be shipped to India, Japan, and China, despite the often-cited erroneous claim that Asians didn’t eat dairy products. 

Transparency’s Dark Side

There is a dark side of transparency. Today, it’s a tool used as much by the corrupt and dishonest as it is by those who are actually honest. It’s used as an illusion to give the appearance of honesty without the intent of being honest. You can simply claim to be transparent, and create a halo of honesty about you, without actually being honest. 

Two factors empower this dark side of transparency. We’ve discussed them a lot in this book. 

The first is our deluge of information and facts disguised as entertainment. Even the most open and transparent systems must compete with buckets of information that are more interesting. 

The second is our poor information diets—that we choose information we want to hear over information that reveals the truth makes the competition all the more difficult. 

Whether it is the press, the government, or businesses, without conscious and deliberate consumption, transparency does more harm than good. While it can be used as a means of disinfecting a system, transparency can also be used by the corrupt to create a false association with integrity and honesty. 

Hold the light

I remember hearing of a man at sea who was very seasick. In my opinion, if there is a time when a man feels that he can’t do any work for the Lord, it is then. 

While this man was sick, he heard that someone had fallen overboard. He wondered if he could do anything to help save the man. He laid hold of a light and held it up to the porthole. The drowning man was saved. 

When this man got over his seasickness, he went on deck and talked with the man who was rescued. 

1,000 Days

Today is my 1,000th day of writing. I have completed my goal of 1,000 days of writing.

I may continue writing or scheduling posts of book excerpts, but I don't plan to commit to 1,000 days of writing again. I've learned not to do that.

5 leadership styles

Over many years of observing leaders and leading people myself, I have learned to recognize five distinct styles of leadership: 

1. The Presider. From presiders we expect the preservation of values, the elegant representation of the team/company both within the enterprise and with its external constituencies, the efficient management of meetings, communications, and so on, and a sort of wise stewardship over the assets of the firm. Think of someone who spends his entire career at the same company and serves a relatively short stint as CEO—a time during which everything runs smoothly but nothing changes dramatically. He successfully presided. 

2. The Manager. From managers we expect teams to be led to deliver on-time, on-budget, agreed-upon results. Managers are like conductors who understand the score and each instrument without having to play every one of them. Managers excel at managing people, so they tend to focus on the team rather than the organization, its strategy, or its trajectory. 

An athlete's question for God

When I started out with God as my coach, I would sit down with a pen and paper and ask Him questions. 

This was a bit of a transition for me, because my prayer times were usually more like my talking at God than my giving Him space to speak back. But I’ve discovered that if I’m not asking God questions, I’m not creating room to hear Him. 

I had been taught how to pray from the time I was a little kid in Sunday school, so I was well versed in knowing how to talk to God, and I did listen for His voice, but the concept of asking Him specific questions and expecting to hear His answers immediately was new to me. 

Sure enough, though, when I started asking Him questions, He started answering them. And one of the first questions I asked God is, Where does strength come from? 

The Carpenter's Voicemail

He called the number and after a few rings Michael heard the voice of the man who saved his life:

“Hi, I’m not answering my phone right now because I’m building kitchen cabinets at 111 Main Street. I’m putting my heart and soul into these cabinets so I won’t be returning calls until I’m finished with the job. Please know I will give the same attention and care to your work, as well. If you need to talk to me feel free to come by 111 Main Street during my lunch break at noon.”

Source: The Carpenter by Jon Gordon, Ken Blanchard

Policies for handling debt crises

There are four types of levers that policy makers can pull to bring debt and debt service levels down relative to the income and cash flow levels that are required to service them:

1. Austerity (i.e., spending less)
2. Debt defaults/restructurings
3. The central bank “printing money” and making purchases (or providing guarantees)
4. Transfers of money and credit from those who have more than they need to those who have less

Source: Big Debt Crises by Ray Dalio

As a friend of mine pointed out, there are also taxes.

Overcoming prayer

A young man enlisted and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men who passed the time playing cards and gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed. 

They cursed at him, taunted him, and threw their boots at him. 

So it went on the next night and the next. 

Three business and leadership lessons from cricket

There are three stories from my all-too-brief cricketing past that speak very directly to business and leadership principles I use even today as a CEO. 

The first principle is to compete vigorously and with passion in the face of uncertainty and intimidation. 

In my school cricketing days, we played a team one summer that had several Australian players. During the match, our PE teacher, who acted as a sort of general manager for the team, noticed that we were admiring the Aussies’ play. In fact, we were more than a little intimidated by them. We had never played against foreign players, and Australia of course loomed large in the national cricket psyche. 

I now recognize our teacher and general manager as very much like an American football coach—loud and very competitive. He was having none of our admiration and intimidation. He began by yelling at the captain to get more aggressive. I was a bowler and a terrible fielder but he positioned me at forward short leg, right beside the powerful Australian batsmen. I would have been happy standing far away, but he put me right next to the action. In time, with new energy and new focus, we transformed into a competitive team. 

It showed me that you must always have respect for your competitor, but don’t be in awe. Go and compete. 

Train the mind

“What you accomplish in life,” Lyndon Johnson wrote in the college paper during his freshman year, “depends almost completely upon what you make yourself do … perfect concentration and a great desire will bring a person success in any field of work he chooses.

“The very first thing one should do is to train the mind to concentrate upon the essentials and discard the frivolous and unimportant. This will ensure real accomplishment and ultimate success.”

Source: Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin

A client for life

An e-mail that changed my life: 

Brendon,

I am an INTJ on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This tells you absolutely nothing about me or my ability to succeed. Not now. Not over the next few years. 

My top two strengths on the StrengthsFinder are “Developer” and “Achiever.” This also tells you absolutely nothing about my ability to get things done or attain any specific outcomes. 

On the Kolbe, I score highest as a Quick Start. This means nothing because over time I’ve had to deal with real life and improve at the other modes I suck at like Fact Finder, Follow Thru, and Implementor. 

I prefer blue over green. I’m more like a lion than a chimp. I’m gritty but too often lazy. I identify more with a circle than a square. 

I eat mostly a Mediterranean diet but like hamburgers. 

I like being around people, for a while, but often I long to escape into solitude with a pot of tea and a thick book. I shop weekly at Whole Foods, but many of my lunchtimes are spent at a cheap Mexican place. 

Nothing about any of this can tell you anything, at all, about my capabilities, my odds of success, or my future performance. So please, man, stop trying to bucket me into a “type” or assume that my “strengths” or background give me any edge whatsoever. 

Money has no intrinsic value

It’s senseless to have making money as your goal as money has no intrinsic value—its value comes from what it can buy, and it can’t buy everything. It’s smarter to start with what you really want, which are your real goals, and then work back to what you need to attain them. Money will be one of the things you need, but it’s not the only one and certainly not the most important one once you get past having the amount you need to get what you really want.

How to start a business

In reality, it’s usually possible to start a business—especially the freelance or startup kind—just by finding and then helping a single paying customer. Then doing it again, and again. And only adding new items or processes to the mix when they’re absolutely required. 

If you have an idea for starting a business that requires a lot of money, time, or resources, you’re most likely thinking too big. Your idea can be scaled down to the basics—do it now, do it on the cheap, and do it quickly—and then iterated upon. 

This Is Marketing: An executive summary

Ideas that spread, win. 

Marketers make change happen: for the smallest viable market, and by delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages that people actually want to get. 

Marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem; they use marketing to solve other people’s problems. They have the empathy to know that those they seek to serve don’t want what the marketer wants, don’t believe what they believe, and don’t care about what they care about. They probably never will. 

At the heart of our culture is our belief in status, in our self-perceived understanding of our role in any interaction, in where we’re going next. We use status roles and our decisions about affiliation and dominion to decide where to go and how to get there. 

Persistent, consistent, and frequent stories, delivered to an aligned audience, will earn attention, trust, and action. 

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: Democrats declare victory on COVID-19 stimulus; Vaccination efforts provide hope for summer

Recap: Migrant surge dominates

Clips on Twitter

Not an easy companion

Those who know Leonard Ravenhill will recognize in him the religious specialist, the man sent from God not to carry on the conventional work of the church, but to beard the priests of Baal on their own mountaintop, to shame the careless priest at the altar, to face the false prophet and warn the people who are being led astray by him. 

Such a man as this is not an easy companion. 

Limitless spending

The word “prodigal” does not mean “wayward” but, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, “recklessly spendthrift.” It means to spend until you have nothing left.

Viruses of the mind

Right now, it almost seems as if the social media world was designed to spread viruses of the mind. And that’s probably because it was. 

While in the earlier days of the Internet ideas spread faster than before, today in the walled gardens of social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, or especially Twitter, ideas spread much, much faster, and with less time for rumination or consideration, than ever before. 

His father's negotiating strategy

In memory of my father, Morris Cohen, whose negotiating strategy was always to give much more than he received. His life spoke an eloquence of its own.

Source: You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen

Happiness in work

Not one person in a thousand said that happiness accrued from working as hard as you can to make money to buy whatever you want. 

Taps lyrics

All sixteen men marched down the ramp. As the plane’s massive cargo door closed, a bugle note cut the clear night like a blade, and “Taps” began to play. 

Those who knew the century-old lyrics recited them inwardly: 

Day is done, gone the sun 

From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky 

All is well, safely rest

God is nigh. 

Marketing in five steps

The first step is to invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling, and a contribution worth talking about.

The second step is to design and build it in a way that a few people will particularly benefit from and care about.

The third step is to tell a story that matches the built-in narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: Manchin makes the rounds after pivotal role in coronavirus relief debate

Recap: Manchin in the spotlight after pivotal role in coronavirus aid debate

Clips on Twitter

A template for self-righteous government

In case it ever seemed like problems for Washington to supposedly solve are made up out nothing, you're not alone and you're not wrong.

Take, for instance, S.Res. 85, introduced by Sen. Warren this week. In the name of “the duty of the federal government to dramatically expand and strengthen” something, it simultaneously cites “critical public services and programs” as being both “critical” and “nonexistent.”

Think about that: Something doesn't even exist, and yet in the minds of those who want to “dramatically expand and strengthen” their power in Washington, they present their role as being “critical.”

Will we get through this?

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Schumer described America's situation as a “once-in-a-century crisis.” He specifically emphasized that this is “not once in a decade, not once in every 50 years—once in a century.”

This may be understating the challenge.

He set up the decision before the Senate as one of two choices: either “a long, slow, painful recovery” or a bill “to crush the virus now, get our country back to normal, lay the foundation for our economy to come roaring back—roaring back.” In other words, one way or another, we will get through this.

What if there's a third option, and more importantly, a reason behind these economic difficulties?

Democrats' moving target on voting integrity

Last July, Senator Cantwell (D-WA) spoke on elections, and specifically demonstrated how signature verification works:

Just for those who are really curious about this, I now have a privacy envelope. Now that I am done filling out my ballot, I stick it in this privacy envelope. Why do I do that? If somebody thinks that my privacy is violated because on the outside of this envelope I sign this signature, they separate these two things. This privacy envelope separates this and throws the ballots that are legitimate to be counted, and now no one knows exactly how I voted.

I take this privacy envelope, and I stick it in the official document envelope that I am going to mail back. So I stick it in there, and guess what I have to do? I have to sign and date it. That signature is the validation of this system. It is the validation by my signature, the same as when I went into a voting booth, as we used to do, and signed my name. It is a validation against someone who is trying to create mischief with this system. It is what makes the vote-by-mail system work effectively in our State. I say that because our State has had many close elections, and yet no one has ever contested the outcome of the final election because we go through this system.

Fast-forward to this week.

Tuesday (legislative Monday), Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) spoke on voting rights, and referred to “signature requirements for absentee ballots” as “absurd.”

Executive branch updates

Tanden withdraws nomination as Biden budget chief • CBC 'unequivocally' endorses Shalanda Young for White House budget chief

Senate Finance Committee split on HHS nominee Becerra in tie vote • Confirmation Delayed By Split Committee Vote

Not given = denied ?

During oral argument today, Justice Sotomayor said, “You're denied something if you're not given the right to vote because or results in your denial from circumstances that the state could remedy easily.”

Perhaps there is some particular nuance to the voting circumstances and principles discussed in this case, but the idea that “if you're not given” something then “you're denied” seems to be a problematic and widespread philosophy.

Home interference

Following up on some previous items, both HB 1864 and SB 1310 have been sent to the Virginia Governor to be signed into law.

The Family Foundation has more information on the implications of these bills.

Governor Northam should veto these bills that infringe on home rights.

If he won't, the courts should strike them down.

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: 2024 hopefuls gather at CPAC; House passes coronavirus relief; vaccine effort continues

Recap: Trump's reemergence, COVID-19 vaccines and variants dominate

Clips on Twitter

The most important moment in Congress this week

The most important moment in Congress this week had nothing to do with a spending bill.

From the false teaching of the Greeks in ancient times, a name carried down through the centuries as a symbol supernatural power: the Titans. As men applied their advances in technology to the seas, a vessel was named after these false gods.

A 1911 issue of Shipbuilder magazine described the RMS Titanic as being “practically unsinkable.” When Mrs. Albert Caldwell was boarding the Titanic in Southampton, she asked a crew member if it was true the ship was unsinkable. He told her—“Yes, lady, God himself could not sink this ship.” (Source)

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed H.R. 5 which mandates universal acceptance of sexual immorality and specifically excludes any exceptions on the basis of religious freedom.

We don't elect people so they can rule

The whole point of having procedural rules surrounding the process of making laws is to protect from people grabbing for power.

After the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a change to minimum wage laws does not fall within the purview of budget reconciliation, Squad member Omar Tweeted, “Abolish the filibuster. Replace the parliamentarian. What’s a Democratic majority if we can’t pass our priority bills? This is unacceptable.”

That's about as naked as a raw power grab can get.

Sen. Paul asks important questions for protecting minors

Exchange between Sen. @RandPaul and Dr. Rachel Levine on on Gender Transition. pic.twitter.com/uL0zPTAmke

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 25, 2021

The power of the HHS secretary

Normally, a Cabinet secretary is there to implement laws as part of the President's administration.

However, when a law hands over power to the administration to determine much of the policy and regulation, then the implementation of that law can look very different depending on which administration is in office.

Such is the case with the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services. The amount of power held in this position vastly increased in 2010. The text of the Affordable Care Act mentions the position of Secretary 3,267 times.

Fed reiterates plan for make-up inflation

Fed Chairman Powell testified at a hearing today. It was the equivalent of a 6-month check-up on American currency.

Background: The Federal Reserve has twin monetary policy objectives from Congress: full employment, and two percent annual inflation.

While these objectives remain intact, the Fed completed a review of its “monetary policy strategy, tools, and communication practices” last year as “the U.S. economy has changed in ways that matter for monetary policy.” The goal: “maximum employment and price stability.”

After reviewing its strategy and tools, the Federal Open Market Committee made “some key changes.”

500,000

Much is being made of crossing the number 500,000 in COVID-19 deaths yesterday.

Three thoughts:

One, this includes not just people dying of the coronavirus, but of people with the coronavirus and other comorbidities. US numbers are not consistent.

Two, China's numbers coming from a Communist government are not reliable, but the want-to-be Communists report them as if they are and as if this is reason to beat up on their own country.

Three, the language describing the number as being “mind-boggling” and “almost too large to grasp” represent difficulty in understanding and personalizing the tragedy.

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: CDC school reopening guidance stirs debate; Texas battles winter freeze

Recap: COVID-19 dominates

Clips on Twitter

Remembering Carman

Sometimes when a seed dies, we get to see just how many seeds that seed actually planted.

Carman Dominic Licciardello passed away this week.

I was one among many those who grew up listening to Carman. Firing up his YouTube channel brings back a lot of memories. I texted my youth pastor, too.

Enabling Virginia government 'entry without delay' into your home

One of the earliest parts of the Affordable Care Act to get repealed and never replaced was the 1099 provision. Section 9006 onerously and vastly broadened the reporting requirements of payments over $600. It was repealed before it ever went into effect. Even the Obama White House celebrated this fix to a problem it helped create. They had no choice; the public outcry was obvious and overwhelming.

The Virginia General Assembly is giving serious consideration to passing a law that is at least as overreaching.

There is much change that full Democratic control in Richmond has brought. Much of it is objectionable, but not necessarily immediately encroaching on one's own personal liberty. (For instance, firearms limits on domestic abusers hopefully do not apply to most people, problematic though they may be given the case law.) Even such very limited consolation is entirely absent from one law that would resemble the overreach of the federal 1099 provision and go much further.

Day colors

Solar gradients is a cool background.

I got using and configuring a Mac tonight and almost forgot about writing for today.

Equity vs. public health

How quickly the politics of equity overtake public health.

Virginia Mercury has a headline: “Hospitals have gotten the lion’s share of Virginia’s early vaccine shipments — raising concerns over equity”

This shows how history can be forgotten with lightning speed.

Two things to note:

1. There is no approved vaccine. We only have vaccines that have been authorized for emergency use.

2. Because this vaccine is so new and not yet approved, distribution originally took place only in hospitals because they wanted to make sure there were resources available in case someone had an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

Nothing

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3).

Just so, my Lord Jesus wants me to take that blessed position as a worker, and morning by morning and day by day and hour by hour and step by step, in every work I have to do, simply to abide before Him in the simple utter helplessness of one who knows nothing, and is nothing, and can do nothing. Oh, beloved workers, study that word nothing.

Deconstructing the threat

Some Christians are less concerned about the philosophical dangers of critical race Theory (CRT) than are some secular liberals.

Dr. Anthony Bradley portrays CRT as being a rational “intellectual movement” to find and dismantle white supremacy “wherever it is found.” He argues we should “learn what one can from it while rejecting what is wrong.” Specifically, he rejects a claim that racism explains “all racial struggles and racial disparities that non-white faces in America” as “overly simplistic, unsophisticated, and monistic.” He views CRT as simply using anti-racism to save us from white supremacy. He proposes we “use the resources of the Christian and Presbyterian traditions for analysis and proposals for solutions, and pray.”

To him, racial injustice is “woefully inadequate to explain the nature of reality and to offer non-coercive solutions” as compared to having the Word of God, various summary confessions and ample centuries of history. The Word of God, when proclaimed, is effective because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). What happens when it is not proclaimed? What if CRT is not just “a limited analytical tool”? What if CRT is a part of a larger framework not interested in a solution?

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: Lawmakers weigh in on impeachment trial; Biden administration eyes timeline for mass vaccinations

Recap: Trump acquittal in second impeachment trial reverberates

Clips on Twitter

The nature of conscience protection laws

As a legal matter, I agree with conscience clauses and would vote for them at any given opportunity. No one should be forced to violate their conscience or their deeply helped theological beliefs.

As a cultural matter, conscience clauses in law are indicative of a shifting cultural landscape, and those who advocate for those legal rights may have inaccurate expectations.

The path to greatness

Almost twice in a row, Jesus says that whoever wants to be first or to be great “must be the servant of all” (Mark 9:35; 10:44).

Notice, he doesn't say it's wrong to be first or to be great. In fact, he even tells them how to do exactly that. The method is just the opposite of what anyone would expect in order to attain those things.

Productive days

I've had a productive couple days. Today included a lot of writing, too, but not for anything here.

Sometimes you have to keep certain habits or commitments to a minimum in order to make progress in other areas, especially areas that have been delayed or neglected for a while.

Headline for the day: China pulls broadcaster off air after Uighur report

The problem with claims about ‘starvation wages’

Yesterday President Biden's budget director nominee expressed support for federal funding of abortion.

Today was her second confirmation hearing before another committee, and Chairman Sanders used the opportunity to make yet another mention of “starvation wages” some people are earning.

U.S. Senate Record highlights, 2/8/2021

Senator Grassley spoke about The 1776 Report.

As I have often said, our Nation is unique in human history in that it was founded not on the basis of common ethnic identity or loyalty to, let's say, a Monarch but on certain enduring principles. …

Our patriot forefathers concluded that these principles were worth fighting for and took up arms in an improbable quest to defeat the largest and best trained military at that particular time.

This included many Black patriots who fought for American independence--a unifying fact that I believe deserves a monument on the National Mall, something that I have been working toward for years. …

A win from the private sector on COVID-19

CNN 10 today reported on Dr. Allen Sills, chief medical officer for the NFL, and how the league managed to keep their positivity rate all season to as low as 0.08% with no in-play spread anywhere in the world.

We had an outbreak in Tennessee and we went in and really dug into that and tried to understand how did a transmission occur despite our protocols. 

That`s when we began to realize it wasn`t just six feet and 15 minutes.

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: Budget resolution clears path for $1.9 trillion stimulus; Senate gears up for impeachment trial

Recap: Trump impeachment trial, stimulus dominate

Clips on Twitter

Streamlining content-gathering

This week's Congress Update took more than half the day today—much longer than normal, though not unprecedented. It was a busy, long, complicated and late week in Congress. (The Congressional Record for Friday still hasn't published as of this writing.)

More smoke

One of the landmark legal milestones of the 1990s was the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Cigarette companies were massively held responsible for public costs incurred due to the detrimental health effects of tobacco. Tobacco companies are paying $206 billion to states over 25 years ending in 2025. There are still four years left to go on those settlement payments.

Before these reparations are fully paid, policymakers are now moving in the opposite direction. Today, the Virginia Senate voted 23-15 to pass SB 1406 to legalize “simple possession” of marijuana.

Unusually free

Today, I learned that Officer Brian David Sicknick was younger than me when he passed away last month. The Wikipedia page for him indicates he was, apparently, an “outspoken supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.”

It's not his politics that surprise me. I'm sure there are many Capitol Police officers on both sides. It's the outspoken part I find unusual. I would have thought that the Capitol Police were either non-partisan, or expected to keep their politics to themselves. That he did not, I think is a good thing.

The nature of unsolicited advice

Chris Saxman wrote a column about an interesting topic, “unsolicited advice,” and he cited a column that cited a summary of studies on the motivation of those who give unsolicited advice.

“Researchers discovered: ‘…giving advice to others can increase the feeling that you have power. In particular, the researchers suggest that when you advise someone else, it gives you the sense that someone may follow your advice. That belief that you are influencing someone else’s behavior then leads you to feel more powerful.’”

Considering the death penalty in Virginia

The Virginia Senate is considering a bill, SB 1165, to repeal the death penalty.

I have not listened to most of the debate, but I listened near the end today, and in hearing the Senator from eastern Fairfax, the two most compelling points I heard him make were (1) death penalty expansion is last on law enforcement's legislative priorities, and (2) there has not been a death penalty conviction since 2012.

Neither of those points, however, address the fact that having the death penalty on the books is a strong deterrent in the commission of crime. Some criminals adjust how they commit crimes based on the types of punishment they may face. The death penalty is the most significant factor as it is the ultimate punishment man can impose under law.

The consequences of feeding the beast

Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya said of social media, “If you feed the beast, that beast will destroy you. If you push back on it, we have a chance to control it and rein it in. And it is a point in time where people need to hard-break from some of these tools and the things that you rely on.”

This sounds a lot like the image-maker described in Psalm 115. After describing several imitation senses and body parts, the psalmist wrote: “Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them” (115:8).

There is a better approach.

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: New COVID-19 variants spread in US; Redditors shake Wall Street with Gamestop stock

Recap: COVID-19 relief dominates

Clips on Twitter

Global internet: only one location at a time

I did a little reading about Starlink today, and I found one fact about using it rather strange. While one might think this would mean access to the internet from anywhere in the world (within certain latitudes), that's apparently not the case.

Extending employer rules to everyone in Virginia

The Virginia House passed HB 1864 today. (Update: HB 1864 sent to Governor)

According to this legislation, for “a person employing one or more domestic workers” such as “babysitters, cooks, waiters, butlers, valets, maids, housekeepers, nannies, nurses, janitors, laundresses, caretakers, handymen, gardeners, home health aides, personal care aides,” “It is an unlawful employment practice” to “Fail or refuse to hire, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to such individual's compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions including lactation, age, status as a veteran, or national origin.”

A defeat for women

It's abortion day at the White House.

The bad news is the United States is expanding its funding of those who openly shed innocent blood all around the world, including at home.

This policy change has become an early action of every incoming administration since President Reagan initiated the Mexico City Policy in 1984. This rebuilds the high places.

Censure

I've not been following the sage of the Virginia Senate and its censure resolution recently, but I did watch the end today. First, I watched it almost end yesterday.

The Virginia Senate nearly acted on the resolution yesterday until a tearful defiance was declared to be in the context of a relative having had open-heart surgery yesterday. One senator had compassion to defer for a day, only to have that followed up later that evening with a series of attacks from said senator on social media. So much for needing time to focus on family. Perhaps those were posts by staff, but even so, that confirms a lack of discretion and control.

Truth is not by vote

The new administration emanating from the White House is projecting this aura of truth-telling, and further, as if this is distinct from the last administration. A breath of fresh air to many, supposedly.

There's a big problem with this idea. The clarity with which the lies are being told has increased. It's no longer a fight between the White House and the press over what constitutes the facts that should be put forward. There is uniform agreement between those two that children in the womb are not people, and therefore there's nothing wrong with killing them.

I disagree. It is wrong. It's always been wrong. And just because they are willing accomplices in sending forth these lies to the nation and the world with one voice does not make it true.

The latest official information on U.S. federal funding of abortion organizations

If you're looking for a baseline on where America is with abortion at the end of the Trump Administration and the beginning of the Biden Administration, the GAO recently published a report detailing, among other things, how $1.8 billion went to abortion organizations over three years.

The data is from FY 2016 through 2018. As government data goes, that's current.

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: All eyes on Biden administration to tackle coronavirus

Recap: Biden agenda, Trump impeachment trial

Clips on Twitter

Two functions of Section 230

Section 230 does two things:

1️⃣ It allows companies to host third party content without being held responsible.

2️⃣ It allows companies to remove third party content without being held responsible.

1️⃣ is what has made social media possible.

2️⃣ is what conservatives don't like.

Two noteworthy lines from Senator Schumer's first speech as Senate Majority Leader

Upon the Democrats taking over the majority of the Senate on Wednesday, Senator Schumer gave his “maiden speech” as the body's new majority leader. I especially note two comments he made.

The first is from his welcome to the three new Senators that gave them the majority. He recognized Senator Warnock of Georgia, “born while Georgia was represented in this Chamber by two staunch segregationists, is now the first African-American Senator Georgia has ever elected.”

12 for 45

It may, perhaps, be one of the oddest of all places to find a concise list of one's crowning accomplishments, but during House debate eight days ago, one paragraph lists top executive accomplishments of the last four years:

Politics and the fact that they want to cancel the President—the President who • cut taxes, the President who • reduced regulations, the President who, prior to COVID, • had the greatest economy, • lowest unemployment in 50 years, the President who • got us out of the Iran deal, • put the Embassy in Jerusalem, • brought hostages home from North Korea, • put three great Justices on the Supreme Court, • gave us a new NAFTA agreement, • the Abraham Accords, • the COVID vaccine, and who • built the wall.

Praying for the wisdom of Solomon

At the inauguration today, the invocation asked God to give President Biden the “wisdom of Solomon.” Actually, it was the wisdom of God.

The foremost display of that wisdom is instructive:

Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him. 

Turning the page

As the nation turns the page on administrations tomorrow, there is a news headline from last week that sits right on the line which demonstrates the stark difference in how the two administrations see the world.

Teen charged with killing infant daughter in woods

We rightly mourn and recognize this behavior as wrong.

We also note how close they were to half the nation having no problem with this kind of behavior.

Three major life choices

46 years ago today, Linda Gail Hansen married Thomas Edward Christensen at the North Side Gospel Center, 3859 N Central Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60634 at 4:00 P.M. Central Time.

This is the message they included in their program:

We are both very glad you are able to share with us this very important and special occasion in our lives. In every person's life come three major choices: ETERNAL DESTINY, LIFE-WORK, and LIFE-PARTNER.

Each of these decisions answers a major question:

• With whom shall I share eternity?
• With whom shall I share my message and purpose for living?
• With whom shall I share my heart?

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: Washington prepares for an inauguration and impeachment; coronavirus surges across the US

Recap: Capital locked down ahead of Biden's inauguration

Clips on Twitter

Cultural Resiliency

How are we doing, America?

Apparently some think that a good way to answer that question is by asking, “What scares you most about the coming year?”

Things people fear:

• DC becoming a state
• Puerto Rico becoming a state
• Undocumented people becoming voters
• Becoming a Communist country
• America turning into Venezuela
• Packing the Court

Frank Luntz summarized:

• “They're afraid.”
• “They're petrified.”
• “They're nervous that the country won't be the same America that they remember.”
• “They're nervous that the social and the cultural aspects of the country are changing.”

When liberals hear such resistance to social and cultural change, they conclude conservatives are racists who “don't like black and brown people.” This is not correct.

America is changing in multiple ways, and there is a lot of nuance to how those changes work out. Changes in the racial composition of this country are not the same as changes in its ideological composition.

COVID-19 Vaccine Web site: 'you have no reasonable expectation of privacy'

The CDC's Vaccine Administration Management System requires this consent to begin registering for the vaccine:

Security Alert - This warning banner provides privacy and security notices consistent with applicable federal laws, directives, and other federal guidance for accessing this Government system, which includes all devices/storage media attached to this system. This system is provided for Government-authorized use only. Unauthorized or improper use of this system is prohibited and may result in disciplinary action and/or civil and criminal penalties. At any time, and for any lawful Government purpose, the government may monitor, record, and audit your system usage and/or intercept, search and seize any communication or data transiting or stored on this system. Therefore, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Any communication or data transiting or stored on this system may be disclosed or used for any lawful Government purpose.

(emphasis added)

Tech lanes

There's a limit to how much complexity a system can handle, especially when going outside one's longtime area of expertise.

Microsoft has long been a software company. It may be software that deals directly with hardware, but it's still primarily been about software.

The Surface line of products is an example of Microsoft venturing beyond software into hardware.

Who takes care of you?

While speaking on the House floor today, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was wearing a mask with writing on one side that said, “I take care of you,” and on the other side, “You take care of me.”

If this sounds like God's instructions to “love one another,” that's not a mistake. This is an intentional re-appropriation of instructions given to the individual and instead taken by the government.

More theater in the name of security

In the wake of the Capitol being overrun last week, “the most visible safety measure yet put in place” by House Acting Sergeant-at-Arms Timothy P. Blodgett is to put metal detectors in place at the entrances to the House floor.

For all other entrance screenings, such as at office buildings, Members of Congress have been not been required to pass through those screenings. (Interestingly, the late Sen. Tom Coburn would go through them.)

How would this have changed the incident last week?

3 Vaccine History Periods

I can identify 3 periods of vaccine use that are all very different from one another.

First, there was the kind where they discovered how to ward off debilitating diseases like polio. I'm old enough to remember an elderly man I knew as a child who was wheelchair-bound because he caught polio before he could be vaccinated against its paralyzing effects.

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: Riots roil Washington

Recap: Capitol siege, Trump future dominate

Clips on Twitter

Permanent suspension of an audience

Dismissing the President of the United States from Twitter was not just about the man. Twitter didn't just care about Donald Trump or what he posted. Twitter specifically wanted to sever the connection he had with his followers that it provided.

This is evident in its explanation of how Twitter gave “close review” to his Tweets and “the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter.” The President could have written almost anything and be found in violation of that standard.

Twitter has a history of extending their reach of influence beyond their own platform.

The source of moral authority

There is only one source of moral authority: God Himself.

Just as the Scriptures say that God is alone wise, and for Whom it is impossible to lie, so He is the sole source of determining that which is right and good.

He has revealed His will and His law in His Word.

The only authority man has ever had is that which has come from God. He removes kings and raises up kings.

China's fake numbers are cracking

For months, China has reported exceedingly low numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths. For being the world's most populous nation, this is simply not credible. However, due to China's heavy media and political investments in the United States, questions about these numbers have been largely absent.

That changed today.

China is going back under lockdown.

After reporting 100 new cases, they put 11 million people under lockdown. If that ratio sounds a bit off, there's a reason for that.

Hard-Interrupted

I was watching Congress today when the Senate was suddenly interrupted. Later, the House was interrupted, too. As of this writing, both are officially still in recess. The long day they had planned is still pending and potentially in its early stages.

I had a cable guy coming today. What I had believed was an installation option turned out not to be the case, and he left before I felt reconciled to my more limited options.

Hard interruptions are no fun. They're disorienting.

How the Senate works until the Georgia runoff elections results are clear

Short version: Republicans maintain the majority unless Democrats win both Georgia Senate seats. They currently have 51 Senators. That number could increase by one, stay the same, or decrease by one.

“The quirk that affects the initial Senate majority, though, is that Loeffler [is] a senator to start the new Congress, while Perdue“ is not.

Long version: AP explainer

What Georgians needs to know about what's already happening in Congress this year

If you had nothing to go on other than what's already happening in the U.S. House of Representatives this year, you'd think Democrats had just taken over the majority and had a huge electoral majority to enact sweeping change, starting with its own institution. You'd never guess they've already had the majority, nor that they lost seats only weeks ago in the last election.

The Rules package they've put forward and been voting on this week include a consolidation of power and an acceleration of implementing a far-left agenda. This is before they've really begun introduce and pass radical legislation.

If the Senate goes to the Democrats, that puts Democrats in full control of the top two branches of the federal government. The last time that happened was in 2008 and by early 2010 we had the Affordable Care Act and all of its infringement on religious and personal liberty.

Would single payer be next? Taxpayer-funded abortion?

Would Democrats consolidate power in the Senate, too? In the Supreme Court?

We don't want another 2010 nor what could be worse. A Republican-controlled Senate would keep a check on the Biden Administration and the House from having free reign to enact their agenda to “change America.”

Sunday Talk Show Recap

Preview: Georgia runoffs; coronavirus vaccine roll out

Recap: Health officials push back

Clips on Twitter

The fundamental problem with single payer

One doesn't have to look any further than the name to learn what the problem with a single payer health care system is.

Only one payer is allowed.

A “right” to health care in practice ends up meaning the government pays for health care, and doesn't allow anyone else to pay for health care. Only two countries in the world have a single payer system, North Korea and Canada. The Canadian system is not comprehensive, and is increasingly less exclusively publicly funded. The only true example of single payer in the world is Communist North Korea.

Nonetheless, many are convinced a single payer would work out just fine, but let's say, for the sake of argument, that in a system serving millions of people, there may be times when some people are not satisfied with the services they receive through this system.

If those people find a different health care provider they want to pay to provide them or their family members care—a good thing to do—they are not allowed to do that. That would make them another payer and the government would no longer be the single payer.

Sharing the hope, not the assumption

Normally I love a new year. The pressure of the holiday season is passed, the deck is cleared for a fresh start.

In some ways both of those things remain true, and in other ways, not. The pandemic adds to both. There's lots of uncertainty. There's a lot of opportunity to trust the Lord.