Christian refuge 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

St. Matthew's Monastery (363 A.D.) is just 20 miles from Mosul, which Islamic State captured in 2014. 

They fully expected an attack on the monastery, with all the destruction IS had done in other cities. So the monks started evacuating their relics and art, including centuries-old Christian manuscripts and the (supposed) bones of Saint Matthew.

But the monastery was saved: "Bolstered by a U.S.-led bombing campaign, a force of Kurdish peshmerga fighters — who are Sunni Muslims — stopped the advancing Islamic State militants just 2.5 miles from the beige stone citadel of St. Matthew’s."

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"St. Matthew’s Monastery maintains a furnished dormitory available for Christians from anywhere in the world to come and stay free of charge."

Christian refuge

"When Islamic State conquered [2014] the ancient city of Mosul, Iraq, their videos trumpeted destruction of important works of art. Now they have conquered the city of Palmyra, Syria, and again they destroy [2015]."

So much destruction and violence just a few years ago. IS was militarily defeated in 2017, but many belonging to religious minorities have been afraid to go back.

There is a place the few Christians who remain feel safe to go to celebrate mass: it's St. Matthew's Monastery, established in the year 363 A.D. -- only about 330 years after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

Besman Naif, 42, a Christian man from a nearby village, says "It’s safe for us to pray here . . We aren’t safe anywhere else . . The [IS] mentality is still there, many well-known terrorists just blended back into the community."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Read to kids

If you read the Bible to your kids, what are they getting out of it?

Change happened

You'll have to click on this chart to read it, and it's worth it. 

A one-sentence summary of human history: "Everything was awful for a very long time, and then the industrial revolution happened."

Space vehicle 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

As you know, SpaceX was "founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets." They have worked toward the goal of interplanetary travel since the very beginning.

Falcon 9 and the bigger Falcon Heavy (both uncrewed) have done all SpaceX's missions so far, but eventually "Starship" will replace them. It's the vehicle for deep space, interplanetary travel, like SLS (yesterday's post) is supposed to be. Conceivably it could replace SLS for NASA if the problems are not solved.

Starship (according to the latest design) will be a little bigger than Saturn V - that enormous rocket that took three men to the moon fifty years ago - and about 30% heavier.

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SLS (if it's ever built) is similar in size to Saturn V.

Space vehicle 1

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

NASA's target for going to the moon is 2024. What vehicle we're going to use to get there is not entirely clear.

The SLS (Space Launch System, being built by Boeing) is NASA's official answer to that question. Boeing calls it "the backbone for a permanent human presence in deep space, for multiple trips to the moon and eventually Mars and beyond."

But confidence is the SLS is waning. Expected dates for its first flight slipped from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. Disappointing. Combine that with cost overruns of hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives science committee says, ""If delays continue, if costs rise . .  no one should assume the U.S. taxpayers or their representatives will tolerate this forever."

Indeed. Taxpayers have already invested billions in this project. But at some point, maybe we'll have to cut our losses. You can guess what company is waiting in the wings with an alternate proposal.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Lunar goals

Over half of surveyed Americans (57% last year) think we should go back to the moon. But only 38% think humans ought to go (some say we should send robots). 

It takes years and a lot of money to get that accomplished. But with politicians running for office every 2-6 years, a new president, senator, etc., may change the goal and eliminate funding. Can America really send a crew to the moon by the current goal of 2024? Maybe.

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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says, "If it wasn't for the political risk, we would be on the moon right now. In fact, we would probably be on Mars."

Many agree with Elon Musk that a permanent human-staffed lunar research base should be established.

"A lunar base could evolve into a fuel depot for deep-space missions, lead to the creation of unprecedented space telescopes, make it easier to live on Mars, and solve longstanding scientific mysteries about Earth and the moon's creation. It could could even spur a thriving off-world economy, perhaps one built around lunar space tourism."

(cont'd tomorrow)

God & space

(cont'd from Saturday's post)

When will we go to the moon again? NASA's goal is 2024. SpaceX is aiming for 2023. When our astronauts get there, they'll read the Bible to their broadcast audience back on earth. And they'll take Holy Communion.

No, wait -- that's what astronauts did decades ago. Three astronauts on the 1968 Apollo 8 mission read Genesis 1:1-10 to their earthly audience on Christmas Eve while they orbited around the moon. That event was celebrated on a U.S. postage stamp with the words, "In the beginning God . . "

On the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Buzz Aldrin took Holy Communion to give thanks to God before he followed Neal Armstrong onto the moon's surface. He says he did it to symbolize "the thought that God was revealing Himself there too, as man reached out into the universe. For there are many of us in the NASA program who do trust that what we are doing is part of God’s eternal plan for man."

Things are different in America today. Public expressions like these would probably not be tolerated. Few believers would risk it.

"While many Americans are still people of faith, the faith that inspired almost all early Americans has diminished as a public reality. Even the least religious of the American Founders spoke earnestly of the public duties we owe to our Creator."

Many people believe Apollo 11 was an accomplishment of American greatness. But what about our future? "Can America Be Great Without God?"

Buzz Aldrin talks about taking communion on the moon here.

Apollo 11 memory

Fifty years ago today, two Americans put their feet on the moon  - the farthest distance from home that any human has ever been. 

Walter Cronkite, news anchor at CBS television who covered the splashdown four days later, had this to say:

"The date's now indelible. It's going to be remembered as long as man survives — July 20, 1969 — the day a man reached and walked on the moon. The least of us is improved by the things done by the best of us. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are the best of us, and they've led us further and higher than we ever imagined we were likely to go."

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(to be continued Monday)

Less people 5

(cont'd from yesterday's post)
(Re-post from 2017)

"The world's population is accelerating towards collapse, but few seem to notice or care," said Elon Musk in a tweet to ten million followers a month ago. 

He has always been a long-term thinker. He started two companies, SpaceX and Tesla, to solve what he saw as long-term problems for life on earth. Now it's the population implosion--as opposed to the concept of population explosion. 

If you want to learn more, here's a 50-minute video featuring scholars and professors talking about low birth rate. They say there's little or no debate about whether "Demographic Winter" is really happening.

Less people 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A declining birth rate will eventually mean less national wealth. Here's why:

Younger people try risky entrepreneurial innovation far more than older people do. This is the driver of a growing economy (creation of wealth). So growth of total wealth in society slows down as younger people make up a smaller percentage of population.  

Entitlement programs will be affected. You may know that U.S. Social Security payments to current payees are supported by current workers' taxes.  In 1940 there were 150 workers for every retiree, then 16.5 workers in 1950, and by 2010 "just 2.9 workers were paying for the benefits of each retiree." 

China will experience this change. Its "population will soon get very old and then begin to rapidly contract:  By 2050 the country's population will be falling by 20 million every five years; one out of every four citizens will be over the age of 65."  They've started to see a labor shortage. 

From What to Expect When No One's Expecting

Less people 3

(Re-post from 2013)

You'd think that paying citizens to have children would work.  But the examples of Japan and Singapore show that people usually can't be bribed into having babies.  Despite offers like huge cash payments and tax credits, the number of Singapore babies just kept plummeting downward.  Today Singapore's total fertility rate is 1.1.  There is no historical example of replacement rate coming back from a sustained loss of this kind.

Parts of America still still have a birth rate at or close to replacement level:  those parts are also the most religious.  "[I]t is important we preserve the role of religion in our public square, resisting those critics who see theocracy lurking behind every corner.  Our government should be welcoming of, not hostile to, believers - if for no other reason than they're the ones who create most of the future taxpayers."

Reversal of the global trend to very low birth rate - is it possible?  Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore said in 1983 that it was too late to turn back the clock "and have our women go back to their primary role as mothers, the creators and protectors of the next generation."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Less people 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Urban planning has means (roughly) organizing the build-up of cities for more people. But Germany has another task. They're working on shrinking cities.

A town near the Polish border has lost half its population in the last 30 years. The main job of Hoyerswerda's government these days is demolishing abandoned buildings, and a third of housing has already been torn down.  By 2050, it's expected that one of every three people (including little kids) in Germany will be over 65.  Picture that.

Japan's government has for years been paying its citizens to have more children without successfully moving the birth rate up to replacement level (2.1 babies per woman). Many programs, but the fertility rate is still only 1.39 babies per woman. Way below replacement.

"Because of its dismal fertility rate, Japan's population peaked in 2008; it has already shrunk by a million since then . .  At the current fertility rate, by 2100 Japan's population will be less than half what it is now."  Picture what that will look like.  Sociologist Masahiro Yamada coined a new term:  Parasaito shinguru, or "parasite single." Harsh words for a working woman who lives with her parents and spends her entire paycheck on trendy clothes, travel, restaurants - instead of building a family.

From What to Expect When No One's Expecting

Less people

(Re-post from 2013 . . fewer births in many countries is a decades-long trend)

Only 3% of the world's population lives in a country with rising population; the rest of us live in countries whose population is declining.  That 3% lives in Africa and in the Middle East, while more industrialized nations around the world are either going to lose people or are already losing them.

A birth rate of 2.1 births per woman is required to maintain a stable population.  In Germany, the total fertility rate is 1.42 births per woman.  The rest of Europe is also well below 2.1, and Japan and China are even lower.

Central and South America have seen their birth rates tumble from previously high numbers down to 2.1 - 2.8 and they're expected to descend further before very long.

Serious consequences are probably unavoidable because this is a cultural thing that exists in the minds of people, a choice.  It's not because of a temporary thing like war or disease:  it's the choice of reproducing-age adults all over the world.   

(from What To Expect When No One's Expecting)

Warlord 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Joseph Kony may be the most well-known African warlord, at least in the rest of the world. He is still free after a six-year hunt for him by the Ugandan government, aided by the American government. The hunt was officially ended in 2017.

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The International Criminal Court (ICC), which tried Ntaganda (yesterday's post), has charged Kony with 33 crimes against humanity and war crimes. His "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA) became famous for brutality in the 1990's, murdering and mutilating civilians.

"Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, tens of thousands were killed and thousands of others were abducted for fighting and sexual slavery." He claims to be led by spirit voices who tell him the future. He controls his followers with a mixture of religious mysticism and fear.

The hunt for Kony was called off because, having lost most of his following, he was not an immediate threat anymore. Somehow he's evaded the hunt and is living free somewhere.

(taken from July 2018 article)

Warlord

Rebels, revolutionaries, and warlords have been vying for power on the African continent for years. You may have heard about the children they steal and train to be child soldiers for their armies, children who learn violence and murder.

Bosco Ntaganda is one of those warlords.  For some reason unknown, he turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, asking that he be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. That was in 2013. 

The ICC handed down a verdict just days ago:  guilty on 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial took almost four years, with over two thousand victims represented by legal counsel. Ntaganda is detained while he waits for sentencing.

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(cont'd tomorrow)

Electoral college

The American president cannot be elected with the support of just one region of the country. The electoral college makes the election represent all regions.

Persecuted 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post about Nigerian Christians)

“I stand here for pleading the government of U.S.,” Rebecca Sharibu said in tears and broken English . . Please, help me. I need my daughter back. I need my daughter.”

Boko Haram kidnapped another 110 girls in February of 2018. Rebecca's daughter, Leah, is the only one who has not yet returned to her home. According to a family friend: "When [Leah] was told to renounce her faith and recite the Kalima-e-Shahadah — ’Kalima-e-Shahadah’ means the Islamic faith creed — she refused to do that . . . That was the only reason that she was kept back.”


Alheri Magaji says her tribe is nearly extinct. Almost 400 people of her mostly-Christian Adara tribe were killed by Fulani herdsmen (a Muslim tribe) just months ago. 

The Nigerian government describes the Fulani attacks as merely “retaliatory.” But Magaji said the Adara people never have attacked the Fulani.

She, like Rebecca, also pleads for U.S. intervention. She says, "There seems to be a systematic plan to take over . . Nigeria as a whole. It is purely religious. Purely. I’m living this. It’s not something I read in the newspaper. It’s what we’re living."

(Note: the linked story is graphic)

Persecuted

Open Doors USA ranks the level of persecution of Christians around the world. Their method considers non-violent pressure on private, family, community, national, and church life - and of course violence.



In horrible first place on this list for 18 years is North Korea. Nigeria is ranked #12 in the world. You may remember that almost 300 girls were kidnapped by terrorist group Boko Haram in the mostly Christian village of Chibok back in 2014.

Three Nigerian women came to the U.S. a month ago to present eyewitness reports from their own experience.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Ray Charles

Enjoy!



Lyrics for that first stanza he sings:

Oh beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America, America!
May God thy gold refine
Til all success be nobleness
And every gain divine.

4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

U.S. Marines with the Official Color Guard of the Marine Corps perform at the Statue of Liberty on May 26, 2019. 

Not broken

"Capitalism is not broken. It does not always work perfectly, of course. But the free market combined with our strong safety net has drastically reduced poverty and improved quality of life for the vast majority of Americans."

When people are  1) free to be creative, to be different, to explore new ideas; 2) free to pursue what they're good at or passionate about; 3) free to keep and enjoy the results of their own ideas and hard work . . . you have a growing economy, a "rising tide" that "raises all ships."

Capitalism has brought about the modern world: abundant and varied food, breathtaking technological advance, vastly improved health and length of life, cheap access to information, etc. 

"Capitalism isn’t broken – it’s our best shot at keeping the American Dream of freedom and success alive."

(cont'd in Friday's post)

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell has been described as an "American treasure," having a "wealth of wisdom," "one of the greatest living American economists." Sunday was his 89th birthday.

Economist Mark Perry celebrates his productive life: "In my opinion, there is no economist alive today who has done more to eloquently, articulately, and persuasively advance the principles of economic freedom . . ."

He is known for many quotes. My personal favorite: 

“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.” I couldn't agree more.

Netted fairing

SpaceX safely recovered one of Falcon Heavy's two fairings, in addition to the two side boosters that were safely recovered, after last week's launch.

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The two fairings protect the payload at the tip of Falcon Heavy during launch, then are jettisoned in space to fall back to earth. Measuring 43 feet by 17 feet, they're made of aluminum honeycomb and carbon fiber. 

SpaceX has been trying for a year and a half to bring fairings back in good shape to be re-used, but without much luck. They have been recovered after landing in the sea, but salt water is damaging.

After much trial and error, one fairing was successfully caught by a boat with a big net last week. Why bother? The two fairings are worth about $6 million.