Liberty Is Impossible                                        Sunday

         Without Faith in God 

     Are we worshiping God today? He is the "King of Kings" and there is no earthly leader to compare. What makes America special? Eric Metaxas asks, "Would it surprise you that virtue and faith are at the heart of it all?"

     He wrote If You Can Keep It and is a member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission. Views will offer Metaxas and others as we approach our 250th year of liberty. He wrote another book after his research told him "it is simply inescapable. Faith in God really is the secret at the heart of American liberty." 

     He quotes John Adams: "Public virtue is the only foundation of the republic." And George Washington: "Virtue is the necessary spring of popular government." Eric: "To be governed by a monarch (see yesterday's Views) or anyone else - simply meant obeying those authorities."

     Virtue. "To govern ourselves means doing the right thing when no one is looking, where there is no authority enforcing that behavior. Why behave virtuously? Faith. If you believe in God and want to serve him, you don't need a government to threaten you. You will do it out of love, repentance and fear of God. This was the secret." 

     Metaxas wrote, "Long before the Revolution, Pilgrams and Puritans fled England for the chance to worship God freely. Many Americans at the time of the Revolution were descendants of those devout Christians. In the 18th century there was a Great Awakening, one of the greatest revivals in history. The main figure was George Whitefield, who said we need not look to kings or bishops, but to God himself. Even kings and bishops would be judged by God.

Tomorrow: What's on a dollar bill?

 

CCP Reimagines Wealth

     A small village in 1045 B.C. became a very large but very poor city in the 20th Century A.D. Then in 1970 (give or take) President Richard Nixon - on behalf of U.S. industries - went to China to convince the communists to join the world. Wealth replaces communism. Ho ho. 

     We share what we read this week. "For decades the CCP sold the people a false promise: 'Leave the power to us, ask no questions, and we will make you richer than your parents could have imagined.' Who could have imagined Beijing, 22 million residents and about every modern activity known to man." 

     "Living standards did rise - not by central planning - but because the Party loosened its grip on the economy. Western capital, technology and markets resulted in more wealth - and the Party took the credit. Even as business - not government - brought more wealth, the Party has jailed critics, crushed dissent, and persecuted communities not interested in politics. Those with rising living standards consent."

Then Comes a Depression

     "Money is running short. Growth is fading, prices are falling, jobs for the young are scarce, and the wealthy are quietly moving their savings abroad." Views read that many young people are leaving Beijing. 

     "So, Xi Jinping is rewriting the deal, analysts have said. Instead of rich, he offers the promise of getting even: the assurance that China has risen equal of the United States, and that the 'rejuvenation of the nation, and the absorption of Taiwan, is within reach.'"  

PS. Let's not be fooled by communists running in our elections.

       Jimmy

 The Practical Justice 

     Mollie Hemingway, no relation to Ernest, we guess, is an author, columnist (not communist) and political commentator. She could write a good book about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. So, she did.

     It's title: Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.

     Hemingway interviewed about 100 people and joked that her reporting became "a little boring" because nearly everyone praised him. Nick Eicher wrote, "The book is a serious account of how character, conviction and prudence shape institutions." 

     A colleague of Nick's (try to keep up) describes Alito as "pragmatic, skeptical of government, skeptical of the expert class, and attentive to ordinary people." An Alito clerk found him in his office on a weekend. The justice told him, "That 30 minutes the litigant has before this court is likely one of the most important 30 minutes of his life. It's worth a little bit of my time on the weekend." 

     Hemingway said, "He is committed to constitutional text and original meaning but deeply concerned with how a ruling will work in real life. This could be dangerous. But Alito's moral seriousness binds him more tightly to the judicial role. He does not believe courts should invent rights or policies and hide them in constitutional language." 

     Eicher: "Some care only about being right. Others care only about winning." Hemingway sees Alito as "a rebuke to both errors. Values and principles are meant to benefit people. In any vocation, the question is how to serve God by serving others." 

     Sounds supreme to me.    Jimmy

 

 The Better States 

     Tuesday, we passed along what observers considered the 10 least desirable states for opportunity, education, cost of living, housing, lifestyle flexibility, etc. Today, they give us nine "better states to move to."

     Ohio is not in either group. 

     In no particular order, the better states are Georgia, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

     Minnesota??? After all that scandal we heard about? Guess we didn't get the full story. We're a little surprised South Carolina isn't on this list. We lived in Aiken for eight years on my final job and might have retired there had not close relatives drawn us to Florida. 

     You might want to avoid states where healthcare fraud schemes rise up to $6.5 billion, where voters choose communists, and where anti-Trump people mar the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Oh, wait, that's Washington, D.C., not a state. 

     As we approach our 250th birthday, our founders would not be surprised at our troubles. The 13 colonies were all Christ oriented. Today, no state claims such. 

"You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself."

- Leonardo da Vinci 

Is that true today? 

20 Winners from Ohio 

     We understand you don't care about most of these Ohio people who excelled in life. Come back tomorrow.            Now...still with us? 

     Neil Armstrong was the first person to land on the moon. Maybe you have eaten at Bob Evans, whose name is still on his restaurants. Steven Spielberg was a great filmmaker. 

     I grew up in Pennsylvania and went to Ohio State where Woody Hayes won five national football championships (by vote, not playoffs). I saw him in his tantrums. Urban Meyer is another national champion coach, first at Florida, then at Ohio State. 

     Halle Berry, outstanding actress, was Miss Ohio in 1988, and runner up for Miss America. Orville and Wilbur Wright were brothers from Dayton who built and flew the first airplane. Simone Biles was a champion gymnast. Labron James is an all-time great basketball player.

     Joe Burrow, voted best in the nation in college (LSU), now quarterbacks the NFL Cincinnati Bengals. Jim Harbaugh, a Michigan star, also won a championship at his alma mater, "that team up north," as Woody referred to Michigan. He has been a winner in the NFL. Ben Roethlisberger won NFL championships with the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

     Other specials include John Legend, Yvette Brown, Toni Morrison, Sherred Brown, R.L. Stein and Sheree Whitfield. 

     Thanks for...wait a minute. The article left someone out. There was a boy in the same high school as my dad. He was small but so determined to play football his dad shrugged and turned him over to the coach. He became a winning quarterback, and a college player north of Cincinnati.

     He returned to coach his hometown Massillon Tigers, winning numerous state championships, winning a national championship at Ohio State, more championships with the Cleveland Browns, got fired and retired in California, returning in five years to coach the new Cincinnati Bengals (Bengal tigers), whose stadium is named Paul Brown. My late Cincinnati uncle took me to the first home game. 

10 Worst States 

     What? All 50 states participate in the best nation ever. 

     Well, there is good and not so good in all 50. Important are healthcare, behavior, economics, housing and food security. And there is education, incomes/poverty and infrastructure.

     We all live under the same Constitution, but state by state we are diverse. Not all of us think quite the same. Not all of us like our Constitution. Right, Democrats? Our founders purposely gave states freedom, except for issues that require unity, such as war. We even had a civil war - if wars can be civil - not unity - but not all states participated. 

     Who are the 10? Suprise. According to scholars who ranked the states, our home state of Pennsylvania is the 10th worst. The two large cities are known for crime, and if we can blame nature somewhat, mountains largely separate the west and the east. 

     Would you blame the "sooners," the settlers in 1889 who rushed to claim the unassigned land before the starter gun? Oklahoma is the ninth worst, not quite as troubled as Nevada, in eighth place. 

     Welcome to the story, seven Southern states, in order from less difficulty to more: Mississippi, New Mexico, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and...

     West Virginia is the most troubled. Maybe they should have remained part of Virginia, Civil War and all. Okay, they did right, in 1860. 

              Jimmy

A Thousand Years

     Where are we going? Drugs. Crime. Illegals. American students are moving further left. Russia's foreign minister is hinting of a nuclear exchange with Ukraine. Just a scare?  

     Mrs. Donut and I have been reading the book of Revelation again. Tough go, but the final five chapters are illuminating. God will have had enough with human sin. Believers - who don't let the antichrist's mark put on them - are taken to heaven, and God sends an angel to deal with the dragon - serpent - devil, that is, Satan. There would be no more deception for a thousand years. 

     Christ will reign for all those years...in Jerusalem, and as King of the world. 

     In commentary on a hymn written in the 1800s: "External peace may not come, despite our efforts and our prayers. But internal peace can be a reality because our rest and trust are in a God who is omnipotent, all merciful, all righteous and all wise. Our God is greater than the armies of the nations, though He allows them victories, and He permits hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes and more. When you get to heaven ask him why.   

God remains, and reigns.