TV dads

Dads on 1950's tv shows have been thoroughly mocked. But some of their qualities are timeless, the kind of thing women want in a husband still today. They took care of business - Responsible, that's the word.

Sears tv

Sears sold this console tv for $750 back in 1964. But stated in the value of our current U.S. dollars, that sum would today be $5,800. 

A tv costs us much, much less today in terms of hours of work required to pay for it. A tv today is also light years ahead in terms of picture, sound and programming.

Innovation in every related industry is part of the reason. Global trade across borders is another part of the reason.

Expecting it

Note: internet issues yesterday, sorry about the blank day :(

On December 10, there was a terror attack in Cairo, Egypt. A chapel in the complex of St. Mark's Cathedral was the site of a bomb blast that killed 25 and wounded 49 during Sunday morning mass.

photo: cbsnews.com

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack carried out by a 22-year-old murderer who was carrying 26 pounds of TNT. 

Many Christians are preparing themselves for forgiveness and martyrdom. “I want to send a message to those that killed my wife,” said Wagdy Anis. “I forgive him, and I pray for him and the people who are like him. That God may lighten their minds and open their vision.”

"Amad Saad Aziz lost his sister Amany in the attack. “To my martyred sister I say, ‘I love you so much and I want to be like you.’ To you who killed my sister I say, ‘We are ready for martyrdom.'"

Smoky Mt. folk

Such beauty in the Great Smoky Mountains area of Tennessee, and such loss from last month's wildfire. The image shows fiery destruction in contrast to the area's iconic beauty (click on it to enlarge).

photo: https://stream.org

This author is from the area. He says resilience and faith are common here, that it comes out in a generous hospitality to neighbors and strangers. "Many of the community leaders stayed out in front to help others even while their own homes and businesses burned. The mayor of Gatlinburg was one of those people."

Mayor Werner: "We lost our home, we lost our business  . . But our family’s safe, everybody’s healthy, we all love each other. … The people of this area, it’s like a family … There’s people that bend over backward. . You know, we’re going to be OK. . We’ve had so many people offer places where we can live. But I’m just thankful that we’re here to be able to try to help everybody; that’s our goal.”

Lux Venit

(cont'd meaning of Christmas from yesterday's post)

Built into us by the Creator is a longing to understand God and eternity, to believe there is really hope for humanity:

"By sword, by flame
In death solemn ages passed,
And voices young grow old & weary
Holding fast - hope for the dawning"

The appeal of the Christian good news is that God sought out humanity by sending Jesus Christ to reveal Him, to be Light for us:

"Lux venit - Arise, shine! For your light has come!"

Those lyrics are from the song below. It's years old, but "Lux Venit" from this album by Michael W. Smith moves me every time I hear it. So enjoy . .

"Skip church!"

Atheists have a new billboard campaign for the season. Their theme is "Make Christmas great again. Skip church!"

So I wonder how this works. Was Christmas great in the past when God was no part of it? If we all skip church, will Christmas be great again? But there's never been a time when the season was empty of God. Since the beginning, its central core has been the birth of Jesus Christ on earth.

photo: mine

I'm glad if atheists can enjoy decorations and traditions. But the joy of Christmas would not last if God were taken out of the season. Eventually nothing would be left but cynical materialism.

There are lots of  cynics who don't have a merry celebration. The good will and beauty of Christmas are just cloying if there's no meaning in it. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Berlin mourns

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Berlin's Breitscheidplatz Christmas Market was deserted today after Monday's terror attack, except for a few kiosks that sold grave site memorial candles. Mourners gathered at the nearby church to express support for the victims. 

photo: cnn.com

"Yesterday was a black day for human history, with what happened in Ankara and then here," said Devid . . "It's just depressing. . The people who do this are animals."

"I'm so sad," said Evita. "Twelve people dead and they were just here having a nice evening with their family. It's shocking."

"I'm shocked, I'm very concerned. I'm angry, also," said Alice.

(from http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/20/europe/berlin-mourning-christmas-market-attack/index.html)

#PrayforBerlin

A German market full of Christmas foods and decorations would be fun at this time of year - normally. This Berlin market was normal yesterday until someone barreled through shoppers and merchandise stands with a truck, killing twelve.

photo: stream.org

Now heavily armed police stand guard in the Christmas market and a beautiful tradition has been poisoned.

Looks like the U.S. State Department was right to warn about this a month ago when they called for caution "in markets and other public places, saying extremist groups including Islamic State and al-Qaida were focusing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events.”

Tree meaning

In 2003 there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. I only found out there were so many when huge numbers started to run from - or be murdered by - Islamic State (for the stories, click on Iraq under Labels to the right). Today there may be about 200,000 left.

The last thing you'd expect to see appear in Iraq right now might be a huge Christmas tree. But there is one, built and paid for by a Muslim business man, costing about $65,000 US.

He "hopes the Christmas tree will help residents in “joining our Christian brothers in their holiday celebrations and helping Iraqis forget their Anguish, especially the war in Mosul.”

My only question is, where did this man get the courage to do it?

Autonomous?

Uber has put self-driving cars to work in San Francisco. California says they're illegal because they don't have permits. Uber says they're not exactly autonomous because a driver must be behind the wheel to monitor and possibly intervene.

Looks like Uber is inviting a lawsuit. Legal definitions of "autonomous cars" should come out of it eventually. 

"According to Anthony Levandowski, the leader of Uber’s self-driving program, Uber’s cars aren’t advanced enough to drive themselves without human monitoring. Therefore, he said, [they] are not autonomous — and do not require a permit."

"Parsing the definition of an autonomous vehicle is in line with Uber’s history of testing legal boundaries."

"Uber is sending another message to California: Other places want us if you don’t."

Artist

Bernie Mitchell is an artist. But maybe he didn't know it for a long time - because he only developed his ability while working as a professional drywaller, putting up drywall and mudding the joints.

Use your imagination to picture him starting to discover his ability while on the job.

Enjoy watching him create this piece.

Corruption

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Politics will always and forever be vulnerable to corruption," according to this author. As soon as a person gains political office, he or she will be the target of pressure and temptation . . because the power of that office includes the power to grant favors.

Apparently, Odebrecht Construction (see yesterday's post) was able to buy favors from a very long list of politicians in Brazil. They even have a department to distribute the payoffs. 

But Brazil's government is not uniquely vulnerable to corruption. Here in America the new administration hopes to "drain the swamp." 

"Politics is prone to corruption, no matter how detailed the legislation, no matter how noble the public official. If you want politics to be less corrupt, the solution isn’t to shrink corruption. The solution is to shrink the state."

People who work for government are just people. They don't have any more natural integrity than anyone else. The solution to problems is not to give the government more power.

Brazil bribes

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

That commentator in Brazil says early morning arrests for corruption are getting common. He speculates on when the next ones will come:

"Any morning now, we’ll get to see the plea bargain from Odebrecht, the largest construction company involved in the scandal . . Odebrecht was so organized that they had a [department] entrusted with handling the hundreds of millions of dollars that went to different politicians and parties. It’s expected they will rat out somewhere north of 150 politicians . . .

"Those politicians aren’t silly gooses though. They realized ending the investigation was a simple matter: pass a law stopping it. In fact, a senator was recorded explicitly talking about that. He’s now the leader of the government in the senate, and was also [on] Odebrecht’s . . list.

"Any morning now."

Citizens are upset. "[P]rotests included 20-feet-tall inflatable puppets of politicians in jail uniforms." 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Carwash Op

When someone comes into a position of power in a government, it is for the purpose of taking care of business for the "common good" of the people. When that person uses their power for their own benefit instead of for the common good, it's called corruption.

Accusations and investigations, bribery and sweet deals, firings and arrests, all of these are convulsing Brazilian politics. "Operation Carwash"is a big campaign to clean up government corruption.

According to a "popular media commentator," "in the last hundred days we have impeached a president, ousted and arrested a leader of the house, arrested a senator for interfering with investigations under orders from the former president, arrested and convicted dozens of politicians, and just hours ago ousted the president of the senate."

photo: http://ontheworldmap.com/brazil/brazil-location-on-the-south-america-map.html

(cont'd tomorrow)

"My holiday"

If you are an American, Christmas is your national holiday in your country! Just say, "Merry Christmas!"

At Pearl

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of Japan's unprovoked attack on America's Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, December 7, 1941.

Battleships were bombed in the harbor. "When the bomb hit the Arizona and detonated in a powder magazine, the 20-year-old [sailor] saw “dozens of bodies” flying through the air. [He] had to swim through oil-covered water with flames as high as buildings just to get to shore. “I knew how to swim, but not underwater,” he remembered. “I swam underwater that day.”

"The average age of the men at Pearl Harbor was 19 years old," just teenagers doing adult work. "In addition to the 19 ships destroyed, 2,403 American soldiers were killed and 1,178 wounded in the attack." Only about 70 who lived through it are still alive today.

photo: http://warontherocks.com/2016/11/observing-veterans-day-2/

Non-materialist

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Scientists don't have to assume that "the cosmos is all there is, ever was, or ever will be." Evidence from nature does not prove that there is no Creator or that human beings are pond scum.

As a matter of fact, Harvard astrophysicist Howard Smith claims the opposite - that humans are special and that "The universe, far from being a collection of random accidents, appears to be stupendously perfect and fine-tuned for life."

In his view, we should be "grateful for the amazing gifts of life and awareness, and acknowledge the compelling evidence to date that humanity and our home planet, Earth, are rare and cosmically precious."

Speaking as a Christian, I do thank God for life, for consciousness, and for our rare and precious planet home.

Materialist

"The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-size planet." Science expert and extremely smart guy Stephen Hawking said this, so of course it must be true . . really? That's actually a big philosophical statement, not a scientific statement.

Celebrities and experts can be (gasp) wrong, especially when they speak outside their field of expertise. Hawking's claim is that humanity has no transcendent meaning or importance, that there's nothing more to a human being than the chemicals that make up the body.

It's the point of view, the faith, of a materialist. Science icon Carl Sagan said it this way, "The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be." His claim is backed by his charisma, his compelling rhetoric, his confident celebrity prestige.



But it's a faith claim coming from his chosen point of view. He's completely confident that nothing - like God for instance - exists if it's not the natural universe.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not hopeless

Going back to global poverty, here are some more details about conditions in the African continent - where people are still poor but no longer "hopeless."

photo: https://capx.co/africa-is-growing-thanks-to-capitalism/

One in seven people in the world live in Africa, a number that is growing. With current trends, Nigeria alone will be home to more people than the U.S. by 2050.

The central fact of Africa's improved well-being is:

"Since the start of the new millennium, Africa’s average per capita income adjusted for inflation and purchasing power parity rose by more than 50 percent . ." That's a big hike in a short time.

How has rising income improved lives? 

• life expectancy went from 54 to 62 years
• outside of war zones, famines have disappeared
• school enrollments are at their historic high

Conscience

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Armando says that it would have been spiritual suicide if he had given in to the pressure while a prisoner in Cuba. Last May he received an award from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Here is the speech he gave, in Spanish but with English translation:


"I'm an ordinary man, but God chose me to do something quite extraordinary.

"My jailers took away everything away from me. But they couldn't take my conscience or my faith.

"I am here to tell you that every little act of conscience counts. Every one of you is called to stay true to his conscience."

"Even if you spend 8 years in solitary confinement, you will never be alone because God will be with you."

"Sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint, but instead it is done one paper at a time, one seemingly meaningless rule at a time, one small silencing at a time."

His own words

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Armando's 30-year prison sentence in Cuba under Fidel Castro was shortened to 22 years when French Pres. Mitterand intervened for him. Considering what he went through, it's amazing he lasted that long. Other prisoners died from violence or suicide.

He was willing to talk about it after he got out. He published a book and was appointed in 1988 as ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Last year he received a lifetime award to honor his sacrificial life from World Magazine. 

In his own words, he describes his imprisonment as “eight thousand days of hunger, of systematic beatings, of hard labor, of solitary confinement, of cells with steel-planked windows and doors, of solitude. Eight thousand days of struggling to prove that I was a human being. … Eight thousand days of testing my religious convictions, my faith, of fighting the hate my atheist jailers were trying to instill in me with each bayonet thrust.”

photo: http://babalublog.com/2016/04/13/eli-wiesel-to-present-armando-valladares-with-canturbury-medal/

(cont'd tomorrow)