Mornings

I knew a man who got up at 3:00 AM every morning.  He made himself breakfast and coffee, and he read the paper after it arrived.  He used to say that he felt sorry for people who didn’t get up in time to enjoy the morning.  He liked the quiet and the sunrise, and he enjoyed the cool air in the summer.  He has long since passed away now, but I was always fascinated by his ability to get so much enjoyment from the morning.

I used to work with a woman who told me that there were two kinds of people in the world: larks and owls.  Larks are up with the sun.  They chirp and swoop through the air in celebration of the day.  Owls open their eyes at sunset.  They blink, stretch, and scratch their wings with their claws.  Maybe they fully wake up, and maybe they go back to sleep until dark.  They are intellectual, filling the night air with the question, “Who?”  They are content with their way of life, but they don’t quite fit in with the regular work day.  They seem to kind of scare people.

I am an owl.  I love sleeping late in the morning.  I find the sunset to be just as beautiful as the dawn.  I like to read or watch TV until I get sleepy, which is usually around 2:00 AM.

I was about 12 or 13 years old when they came out with transistor radios.  My mom gave me one for Christmas that was about the size of one of today’s small, digital cameras.  I used to hide under the covers and listen to popular music on station KIMN in Denver until I went to sleep.  Consequently, the batteries didn’t last long.  So, I would turn my clock radio way down low and listen to it.  Sometimes Mom would hear it and yell, “Turn that off and go to sleep!”  Other times I would wake up with it still playing and realize that I overslept because I went to sleep before setting the alarm.

The work-a-day world is made for larks.  “Be at your desk and working by 8:00 AM.”  There is a lot of discrimination against owls.  Our bosses chew is out for not getting to work until 8:15 AM.  They get irritated when we can’t get our act together until after 10 o’clock.  We have trouble with medical appointments because, “The only opening we have is at 8:30.  If you want an afternoon appointment, you will have to wait three weeks.”  The auto mechanic tells us that, “We can get your car done tomorrow if you get here at 7:30.  The schools teach our children that, “The early bird gets the worm.”  Researchers tell our employers that people are the most productive before 11:00 AM.  Not me!  I am the most productive after I am fully awake, which is usually around two in the afternoon.

Things get a little better after you retire.  The fish bite almost as well between 7 to 10:00 PM as they do before 7:00 AM.  The hunting is good in the early evening, too.  You still get the same grief, however, trying to make appointments and run errands in the afternoon.  Most churches schedule Sunday services early so that the men won’t stay home and watch football.  The neighbors think you are lazy because you are not out mowing the lawn at eight o’clock on Saturday morning. (Good grief, Charlie Brown!)

I defiantly remain an owl.  I spent 50 years punching somebody else’s clock.  Now, I unashamedly follow the beat of a different drum.  If I watch TV until 2:00 AM and sleep in until ten, then that is my own business.  Fortunately, my wife is a bird of the same feather.  So, let’s hear it for the owls.

“When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick.”

George Burns

 www.brainyquote.com

North Korea

When a serious open wound is not treated it can get infected.  Some infections like gangrene or MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) can be life threatening.  North Korea is like an infected wound.  The Korean Conflict ended in a ceasefire that is still with us.  There was no peace treaty, and the reunification of North and South Korea did not happen.  The free world has not been willing to do what is necessary to resolve this stalemate in its favor.  The situation has gradually grown worse, until it now threatens to start World War III.

The American print and broadcast news media have generally ignored our increasingly threatening drift toward open hostilities on the Korean peninsula.  They, and the U.S. Congress, have chosen to try to oust a duly elected president instead.  I get so sick of it. President Trump has recognized the need to end the nuclear threat to the United States, Japan, South Korea and others posed by North Korea.  However, he has no good options open to him.  Things have been allowed to go too far.

Over the last 60+ years, the United States has tried to peacefully resolve the Korean problem, without success.  More recently, Bill Clinton sent Jimmy Carter to negotiate with North Korea.  He tried to buy them off, but they broke their word and resumed their nuclear program.  George W. Bush fought a two-front war in Iraq and Afghanistan on borrowed money.  Having insufficient resources to deal with North Korea militarily, he chose not to follow-up when they continued to develop nuclear weapons.  Barack Obama put his head in the sand.  He allowed the North Koreans to test nuclear weapons and develop missiles that could deliver them.  Unwilling to go to war, anywhere for any reason, Mr. Obama regarded a nuclear North Korea as inevitable.  As Yoda said to Obe-Wan, “Now matters are worse.”

President Trump has been trying to persuade China, Russia, and the United Nations to reign in North Korea.  Over the years they have enjoyed watching the various Kim family dictators make trouble or us.  We can only hope that they will see that Kim Jong-un has gone too far.  However, that would mean that mankind would have learned something from World Wars I & II.  It is probably too much to hope for.

If we impose economic sanctions on countries and businesses that trade with North Korea, we risk a disastrous trade war that would undermine our current efforts to stimulate economic recovery.  We could possibly motivate nations like China to give greater support to North Korea in retaliation.  There is a chance that such economic sanctions might work, but economic sanctions do not have an impressive history of success.  Should armed conflict with North Korea occur, the hostility the sanctions might create could dispose some countries that might otherwise stand aside to lend their support to North Korea.

A blockade is technically an act of war.  If we were to impose a blockade on North Korea, would we be willing to sink Chinese or Russian ships to enforce it?  Would we be willing to bomb convoys of supplies entering North Korea from China?  If we did, what would Russia and China do?  Can a blockade be imposed effectively enough to choke North Korea into submission?  If we blockade North Korea, will it provoke Kim Jong-un and his military bosses to attack South Korea; or perhaps Japan?  All good questions.  Kim Jong-un may be mentally ill.  It is impossible to predict what he will do.

What then about military action?  A “limited” attack on North Korea to destroy their nuclear capability and existing delivery systems would probably succeed if we can achieve surprise and destroy their air force and their command and control systems.  It would almost certainly result in an attack on South Korea, and possibly Japan, by North Korea.  The loss of life could be massive.

I was wrong about the invasion of Iraq in 1991 (Desert Storm).  I thought that Iraq’s military would inflict a lot more casualties on the coalition forces than they did.  I do not, however, think we can safely assume that we can overwhelm the North Koreans the way we did the Iraqis.

Various sources I have read give me to believe that the North Korean air force has at least 1,000 planes, and that they have a 750,000-man army.  To keep the North Koreans from killing thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of South Koreans and Japanese, we will have to crush their military as quickly as possible.  We do not have about a month or two in this case to soften them up with precision air strikes.  We must get the job done in a matter of days; not months.  My knowledge of our military capabilities is dated.  Perhaps our military planners have tools to work with that I am not aware of.  However, the only way I know of to obliterate the North Korean military in a fast, overwhelming surprise attack is with nuclear weapons.  We just do not have the military and economic resources to fight a protracted war on the Korean peninsula; and everybody knows it.

Now, I am not as crazy as Kim Jong-un.  I have some comprehension of the consequences that would follow a nuclear attack on North Korea.  We would be an outlaw nation in the eyes of the rest of the world.  It could precipitate a nuclear retaliation by Russia, China, or both.  In short, there is a high degree of probability that it would start World War III.  At the very least, a nuclear first strike on any nation by the United States would divide our country, and possibly precipitate a constitutional crisis.  Is it worth the risk?

What is to be done?  We cannot continue to ignore the North Koreans and hope they will go away.  Make no mistake, although they do not yet have a missile or an aircraft that can strike the continental United States, they can strike us with a nuclear weapon by other means.

Please understand that I mean this in all sincerity.  We need to pray.  Prayer is not the least we can do.  Prayer is the most we can do.  The one true God, the God of the Holy Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is all powerful.  He created the universe and everything in it, and He is in control of it.  People who are in positions of power in the world are there by His active will, or by His passive will.  They are in power because He puts them there or because He allows them to be there.  His plan for the ages is perfect, and He will work together in all things for the good of those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Secondly, we must apply every legal pressure we can to peacefully bring the regime of Kim Jong-un and the North Korean military to an end; regardless of the economic or international consequences.  If this results in an attack by North Korea on the United States or its allies, we must respond with every military means necessary to destroy completely the North Korean’s will and ability to strike, before they can do a lot of damage.  Our forces must be poised to carry out this mission on a moment’s notice, and we must give our military the resources to do so.  All nations must be made aware through diplomatic channels that any attack on the United States or its allies by North Korea will result in an immediate and devastating military response.

Independence Day 2017

Recessional

(A Victorian Ode)

By Rudyard Kipling

God of our fathers, known of old --

Lord of our far-flung battle line --

Beneath whose awful hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine --

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies --

The Captains and the Kings depart --

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away --

On dune and headland sinks the fire --

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,

Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose

Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe --

Such boastings as the Gentiles use,

Or lesser breeds without the Law --

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust

In reeking tube and iron shard --

All valiant dust that builds on dust,

And guarding calls not Thee to guard.

For frantic boast and foolish word,

Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

Amen.

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/recessional.html

But the man who makes me

his refuge

will inherit the land

and possess my holy

mountain.

(Isaiah 57:13)

The Paris Climate Accord

I am not a scientist.  I have no special training in the science of climate change.  I have spent a lot of time out of doors, and I can observe.  From what I have seen, I believe that the climate is changing.

As far as I know, change is a universal constant.  There are very few things that apply to all times, places and things.  Change does.

Consequently, it is not surprising to me that the climate is changing.  Evidence from the sampling of tree rings, soil, the effects of solar flares, and the ice from glaciers and the polar ice caps indicates that the climate of earth has always been in flux.

There is some evidence that records from the last half of the 19^th century forward show a positive correlation between the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the increasing temperature of the atmosphere.  Any statistician will point out that this does not establish causality.

It took medical science a generation to be willing to say with scientific certainty that smoking causes lung cancer.  When they did, it was not based on correlational analysis.

An example from Critical Thinking (Logic) comes to mind.  If “B” always follows “A” when stated in alphabetical order, does that mean that “A” causes “B?”  A correlation shows that where one variable is present, a second variable tends to be present.  This can be stated with varying degrees of certainty, depending on the closeness of the association.  It is not, however, necessarily a proof of causality.

Personally, I think it is simplistic to attribute any change to a single cause.  Usually, more than one change agent involved.

It may be inadequate to say that the current change in climate is due solely to human activity, like air pollution.  Some years ago, I recall reports that ozone depletion was being caused by too much methane from animal farts; and this was because human overpopulation had created the need for more animal husbandry.  How true.  Anyone who has lived near a feed lot can attest to that.  (I’m joking.)

Anyway, it does not appear that even the most draconian measures to control carbon dioxide emissions can lower the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere.  The reports I am familiar with suggest that we can only stop its progress.

So, why should the United States accept the unfair terms imposed by the Paris Climate Accord?  It is a huge reflection of President Obama’s naiveté to assume that leading by example would have any impact on major polluters like the Chinese and the Indians.  It will only give them more reason to believe that we are fools.

I think that President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement was the correct one.  As he puts it, we must to stop making “bad deals.”  The Paris Climate Accord places a disproportionate burden on the United States, and it gives the Europeans, Chinese, and Indians an unfair economic advantage over us.  Furthermore, it will cost us the opportunity to create more jobs by choking off growth in our economy.  By the way, Jerry Brown’s argument that the Paris agreement will create jobs by developing opportunities in alternative energy sources has not proven to be true, during the Obama administration.  Why should we believe it now?

I think the United States must be responsible for its share of the effort to preserve and improve the environment.  The nations who have approved the agreement say they will not renegotiate.  I think that is a bargaining ploy.  However, if it is not, then we should do what is reasonable to reduce pollution on our own.  I think we can agree that clean air and water benefit everyone.

Memorial Day, 2017

Tommy

By Rudyard Kipling

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,

The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."

The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,

I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:

    O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";

    But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,

    The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,

    O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,

They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;

They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,

But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!

    For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";

    But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,

    The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,

    O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep

Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;

An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit

Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

    Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"

    But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,

    The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,

    O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,

But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;

An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,

Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

    While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",

    But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,

    There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,

    O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:

We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.

Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face

The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.

    For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"

    But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;

    An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;

    An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/tommy.html

To our elected representatives in Washington, D.C:

Never send Americans to fight and die in combat unless you are willing to do whatever it takes to win and to maintain the gains for freedom that have been won.

To the American people:

President Bush said that the war on terror would be a long struggle.  It will take at least a generation, or even two in my opinion, to achieve the kind of victory we need to ensure that we can lead our lives in a relatively safe and peaceful way.  Please do not grow weary of the struggle.  Please do not elect idiots like Barack Obama who throw away the sacrifices we have made.  Please do not make the war on terror into another Vietnam.

Romans and More

A method known as the “Romans Road” is often used to show people the plan of salvation.  If you are interested, you can Google “romans road,” and you will find lots of hits describing it.  I pray that Lamp in a Corner, at its core, will be used by the Holy Spirit to lead people to Christ.  I pray also that we will be used to disciple those who have surrendered themselves to Him.

To that end, then, here are some Bible verses that show the way to Jesus, and other verses to illustrate how the Christian life is led:

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23 NIV)

There is no one righteous, not even one;

There is no one who understands,

No one who seeks God. (Romans 3:10-11 NIV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV)

He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2Peter 3:9 NIV)

God is love. (1John 4:16 NIV)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13 NIV)

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.  The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do as he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.  This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to be in him must walk as Jesus did. (1John 2:3-6 NIV)

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

(1John 1:8 NIV)

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do … I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing … What a wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God – through Christ Jesus our Lord! 
(Romans 7:15-25 NIV)

… I write this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins … (1John 2:1-2 NIV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9 NIV)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV)

I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5 NIV)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2 NIV)

What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:1-4 NIV)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Gods mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual (or reasonable) act of worship. (Romans 12:1 NIV)

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose his very self?  (Luke 9:23-25 NIV) (yet forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:26 NIV)

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.  Because I live, you will also live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20 NIV)

All this I have spoken to you while still with you.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:25-26 NIV)

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. (Galatians 5:16-17 NIV)

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25 NIV)

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (Romans 8:5 NIV)  You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

(Romans 8:9-11 NIV)

Please repent and be saved.  Find a Bible based church that teaches what has been Christian doctrine from Jesus Christ forward. You will still struggle with sin, but if you surrender to the Holy Spirit, you will become more like Jesus every day.

Open Letter on the Honorable Neil Gorsuch

To:  The U.S. Senate

You just aren’t getting it, are you?  The voters’ message in the last two or three elections has been, “We are sick and tired or your failure to get the peoples’ business done, due to partisan political bickering!”  The nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch is a perfect example.

Judge Gorsuch is a man of good moral character.  He has not been convicted of a crime.  He has impeccable academic credentials.  As a private attorney, he did not commit any ethical violations.  As a judge, very few of his decisions have been overturned, and he has voted with the majority more often than not.  His writings are highly regarded.

You Democrats need to stand tall, suck in your gut, and accept reality.  Donald Trump is the president, and if Judge Gorsuch is not approved then you will be faced with another conservative nominee.  Meanwhile, you will leave the supreme court deadlocked, and unable to do the peoples’ business.

Judge Gorsuch is less of an ideologue than Obama appointees, Associate Justices Elena Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor.  You do not want him on the court, since the court is the only way you can advance your unpopular secular-humanist agenda.  Too bad.  You are stuck with it for the next four years.  You are upset because President Obama’s last nomination (Merritt Garland) was stopped by the Republicans.  It is history. Stop whining, get over it, and move on.

Stop blaming the Russians because you lost in 2016.  You lost because you ran a bad candidate.  You lost because President Obama was a failure, and nobody wanted more of the same.  You lost because you put the interests of your party establishment ahead of the interests of the people by running Hilary Clinton because it was “her turn.”  You lost because you were willing to let the middle class take hit after hit in order to advance the “greater good” of achieving your socialist utopia.  Wise up!  Now you are falling over the same rock twice.  The only people who still believe in your socialist garbage are college professors and their brainwashed students.

If you Republicans don’t get all your donkeys hitched up so that they pull in the same direction, you are going to screw up.  You have a two-year window of opportunity to bring about real change that will benefit all the American people.  How can you be so tone deaf!  Put your pride of opinion in the trash can and get it done.  To paraphrase Ben Franklin, if you don’t hang together, you will all hang separately in 2018.  That is not a threat.  It is just fact.

We the People demand that the senate cut the nonsense and confirm the nomination of Judge Gorsuch without further delay.