Put It All Together    

Tampa     Realpolitik     Ubiquitous     MAGA     Protests   

   What do you get? 

   Yes, the one and only is headed to Tampa tonight, first to attend a roundtable on workforce development. Then he will address an adoring crowd at the state fairgrounds, while protesters enjoy their moment in a free-speech zone.

   Yes, we like the idea of making America (relatively) great, especially coming from a president who is not in the oval office to enrich himself. 

   But, when Air Force One rises into the night sky, it and its No. 1 passenger will never attain the height, depth and breadth of the One who spoke everything into existence, and it stood firm. 

   To put things in perspective: 

The Lord foils the plans of the nations; 

He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

No king is saved by the size of his army;

no warrior escapes by his great strength.

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him.

We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.

Psalm 33

   While we sing God Bless America, we might want to start blessing God. 
He is not on our side. (See Joshua 5:14.) Our first pledge of allegiance is to him...if we want to be blessed. MABA.    

      Jimmy

  

Unusual Stories     

Honor Killing - A Houston jury convicted a Jordanian immigrant in an honor killing of his daughter's husband and another man. His daughter, age 24 in 2012, fled her father's radical Islamic demands and married a Christian. Her mother and son also were charged, although the mother testified against her husband, who had also threatened to kill his daughter. Is that clear? 

Sinking Shares - Facebook lost $119 billion in value after its second-quarter report. Mark Zuckerberg's own shares dropped $16 billion, but Facebook is still valued at $511 billion, more than some nations. Twitter shares dropped 17 percent, due to fewer users.

Don't Tell the Kids - More parents are refusing to tell their children what gender they are, expecting them to decide for themselves when they reach age 3 or 4. They use plural pronouns instead of normal gender words. One man says, "Parenting is a social experiment," and acknowledges that his twins might remain gender nonconforming when they get older. At three months, kids can differentiate between male and female faces. 

Pediatricians and other medical professionals foresee developmental problems, as parents "sabotage psychological development." They say, when the kids reach the outside world, they may face bullying or exclusion. One professional says, "If they can't trust physical reality, what can they trust?" 

WORLD magazine online points to Genesis 3, where the deceived human agrees to "be like God." 

Tale of Two White Houses - We can't verify the following, which came via an email that is circulating. Total annual White House salaries under the Trump Administration are about $35.8 million. By comparison, the Obama Administration spent $60.9 per year. 

There are reportedly 140 fewer employees in the Trump White House. Five staffers are dedicated to First Lady Melania, while Mrs. Obama may have had 44. 

The president forwards his entire salary to the Department of the Interior for the maintenance of military cemeteries. Again, we can't vouch for these numbers. 

       Jimmy

       

Blunting Iguanas 

   Some pet owners can't be satisfied with dogs, cats or parakeets. Some in Florida had to buy young pythons. Now we have a python problem. Others wanted iguanas; now we have an iguana problem. 

   Invasive iguanas destroy local infrastructure such as sidewalks, foundations and canal banks, and landscape vegetation. They can also transmit salmonella.

These reptiles tend to colonize along man-made canals. Trapping and relocating them is forbidden, because they can transmit viruses and bacteria to other wildlife. 

   The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission provided $63,000 for a humane elimination project. Blunt force to the head will do it, but if a second blow is necessary, it could be animal cruelty punishable by prison time and a fine. 

   A team of marine biologists was deputized to kill as many as possible. Bolt guns, common in the cattle industry, to the brain are favored. After one month, the score was 249 iguanas.  

   One would think pythons could do the job, but iguanas are borrowing a bit north of where the snakes congregate in the Everglades. 

       Jimmy

     

Outlook for Trump 

Conclusion from George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures:

How can Trump advance? He doesn't have enough votes in Congress. If he gives something, his base is going to revolt. His best bet is to hold his base together and hope lightning strikes. 

What's the role of his incendiary tweets? They strengthen his base ... because newspapers attack him. Newspapers and Trump are in a symbiotic relationship. Trump needs The New York Times and The Washington Post. He needs them to be unreasonably hostile. They need him because their circulation was way down. Now their newspapers are Trump all the time. They have saved each other. 

Symbiosis? He helps The New York Times solidify its control of a very important group. The votes for Hillary came from the Boston-Washington corridor and the West Coast. The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The New York Times need him to do things so they can write another story. 

If he went silent, The New York Times would just be another newspaper instead of the spokesman for the Northeast. 

The attacks on Trump? If he didn't tweet, he'd be attacked for the kind of press conference he held. If he didn't hold a press conference, he'd still be attacked.

He's in a business he's never been in, and the knives were out for him the moment he went to Washington. He gave them ammunition because that held his support together. What is a tweet but a press release that's shortened? It is refreshing to hear directly from the president, not filtered through newspapers. He doesn't know how to hedge.

Marvin Olasky, WORLD magazine

See more at geopoliticalfutures.com 

Seven Power Players      

   Who will be up or down a year from now? Marvin Olasky interviews George Friedman, founder of Geopolitical Futures: 

Donald Trump. Where he is. He doesn't have enough support to rise, and he has enough opposition to keep him where he is. He represents a real movement. He can fall in 2020, but that movement isn't going away.

Vladimir Putin. Precisely where he is, bluffing. His economy is a wreck. His military is not capable of managing the Syrian situation. It's a complete disaster for him.

Xi Jinping. He is much weaker than he appears. He has economic and financial problems. He can't fix it without hurting people. He is arresting anyone who might respond. The myth that this is another Mao Zedong is just a myth.

Recep Erdogan. He will be even stronger. He is in charge and is the one leader in the area whose power can't be questioned internally. 

Benjamin Netanyahu. It's possible he will be out, but whoever replaces him will basically have the same position. Israel's political structure is fairly stable. It is heavily tilted toward right-wing nationalists. The old left is in decline. 

Angela Merkel. Finished. Her power is a shadow of what it was. In some ways (the opposition party is) the more powerful member of the coalition. They now control finance and foreign policy. 

Nicolas Maduro Moros. It's crazy. They are smuggling diapers across the boarder from Columbia. The army refuses to take out Maduro. Oppositions are waging war against each other (vying to be) the next cabinet minister after Maduro leaves. Therefore they can't force him out. No one on the outside has enough interest to intervene. No one in Venezuela has enough power to replace him. 

Tomorrow: What can the U.S. do? 

Learning From Chameleons    

   Three years ago, biological researchers discovered how chameleons rapidly make color changes in their skin during social interactions. The process known as active camouflage provided inspiration.

   These reptiles have light-reflecting nanocrystals in their skin that rearrange to reflect different spectrums of light. When the nanocrystals move, the chameleon's normally soft skin stiffens. 

   Researchers learned how to make synthetic material that can change color and stiffen when stretched. They believe their discovery will help produce active camouflage materials and lead to improved biological implants that can better mimic the properties of living tissue. 

Nature Communications

Lightning Safety

   If you hear thunder, you are at risk and should seek shelter in a building or vehicle. Lightning often strikes outside the area of heavy rain, as far as 10 miles from any rainfall. Many lightning deaths occur before or after the storm.

   Stay in shelter for at least 30 minutes after the last sound of thunder.

   Avoid open areas and bodies of water. Don't be the tallest object in the area. Stay away from isolated tall trees, towers or utility poles.

   Avoid metal conductors such as wires of fences. Lightning can travel long distances through metal. 

   If in a group, spread out to prevent multiple casualties. 

National Weather Service

    Not taking this seriously? Several years ago, a Tampa area professor who specialized in the study of lightning was struck and killed. He was walking along a street with no storm anywhere near.

      Jimmy 

The 'You' You Never Knew      

   You thought you knew all you needed to know about your body. But, you/we have another organ that's been hiding in plain sight. 

   It is a network of interconnected, fluid-filled sacs supported by meshwork, just beneath the skin's surface. This exists throughout the entire body and may affect the function of all other organs, most tissues, and most major diseases.  

   The sacs may prevent tissues and vessels from tearing. On the downside, this network is a river of moving fluid that might contribute to the spread of cancer. 

   Cells within these spaces change with age and could partially account for wrinkling of skin, stiffening of limbs, and progression of inflammatory diseases. 

   Until now this organ eluded researchers because in the lab, sacs lose their fluid, appearing like solid tissue under a microscope. The new discovery provides one more example that "we are fearfully and wonderfully made," and offers future possibilities for health care.

   Said a researcher, "This finding has potential to drive dramatic advances in medicine, including the possibility that the direct sampling of interstitial fluid may become a powerful diagnostic tool." 

Scientific Reports

WORLD magazine online

      Jimmy

Shedding Light on Dark Matter     

   Astronomers are flabbergasted after finding a galaxy that appears to have no dark matter. 
      For more than 30 years, they have believed a theory that dark matter (unseen and non reflective) explains how galaxies hold together. Dark matter, they assume, accounts for behavior influenced by far more gravitational pull than their visible mass would exert. They have estimated that dark matter accounts for 90 percent of total matter in the universe.

   Scientists assign dark matter a large role in the Big Bang theory, which requires an old universe.

   But some physicists didn't agree, and developed their own theory, tweaking Newton's law of gravity a bit to account for the behavior of galaxies. An astronomer with Answers in Genesis believes in recent creation, and says dark matter can exist despite the inaccuracy of the Big Bang theory. He doesn't accept the modified Newtonian theory, because it must hold true in every case or it isn't true at all. 

   If dark matter exists, he says, a whole form of matter that we know nothing about accounts for most of the mass of the universe. "As a creationist, I find that fascinating and exciting and humbling...because God apparently has made the universe out of 90 percent of something we haven't even contemplated." 

   Think about that when you turn out your lights tonight! 

WORLD magazine online

      Jimmy

   

   
   

   

    Happiness    

The psalmist, David, 

found true happiness in the "house" and "assembly" of the Lord.

I love the house where you live, O Lord,

the place where your glory dwells.

Ps. 26:8

My feet stand on level ground;

in the great assembly I will praise the Lord. 

v. 12 

I do not sit with deceitful men,

nor do I consort with hypocrites.

vv. 4-5

Do not take away my soul along with sinners,

my life with bloodthirsty men,

in whose hands are wicked schemes,

whose right hands are full of bribes. 

vv. 9-10

Counting the Immigrants     

   1.2 million lawful permanent residents via green card, 2000-2016

   1.9 million illegal border crossings in fiscal year 2000 
         1.5 million in 2005 
         1 million in 2007
         0.5 million in 2010
         170,000 illegal border crossings in fiscal year 2016 

   10-20 percent additional illegal entries each year via checkpoints or smuggling

    ~ 628,799 people who overstayed visas in fiscal year 2016 

    Visa overstays account for about two-thirds of the undocumented population in any given year. 

    Sources:

Dept. of Homeland Security

Institute for Defense Analyses, DHS

Center for Migration Studies

Gambling on Amateurs    

   Some college football coaches have a gentlemen's agreement to disclose injury information. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for states to allow sports gambling, forget the "gentlemen's" part.

   We bet there will be a mandatory, college football injury report before Alabama wins another national title. Bettors need to know who's not playing each week.

   We bet, before they bet, that bettors will want to know additional details such as:

Does the quarterback have a sore pinkie finger?
Were any starting players out after curfew Friday night?
Are any of the star players having girl-friend troubles?

Is a team in the middle of midterm exams?
Does the starting tailback have a family emergency to cope with?
Who was suspended this week for poor academic performance?

Is the flu going around the locker room?
Has a key player agreed to throw a game?
Who got arrested for battery or theft and missed practice?

   We bet that sports pages will have fewer football statistics. More space will be devoted to team rankings in the above categories. Hope that's just a joke.

   So much for college boys playing a game for fun and bragging rights, before they return to studies Monday-Friday. College football has been a big business for decades. You bet it has. 

      Jimmy

   PS. And did a player dis an upcoming opponent, resulting in chalkboard 
         incentives...if they still use chalk?

   Bees Understand   

  the concept of  

 Nothing 

   Scientists know that bees can count. Now they've discovered that bees understand the absence of things - nothing or zero.

  

Insect brains are more complex, capable of learning and calculating than they ever imagined. 

In Australia, researchers first trained bees to land on a visual display with shapes - like squares and circles - for a reward. Second, they trained others to land on a display with fewer shapes. 

Then they introduced a blank display. Bees of the first group ignored the empty card, but those in the second group chose the empty card for rewards. 

   Scientists draw from that - bees understand that zero is a number lower than one.

   A researcher in London says that bees show comparable ability to primates on the tasks set before them. He trained bees to put a ball in a hole, and showed that they can learn from each other to pull a string for a reward. 

Smithsonian

Thai Boys Learned Lessons 

   Now that they are out of the hospital, Thai cave survivors are sharing their lessons. Some promised to apologize to their parents, those who had no idea the soccer team went on a cave adventure. 

   The Christian boy among them called their rescue "a miracle," adding that the experience taught him "not to live life carelessly." Another boy said, "I feel stronger. I have more patience, endurance, tolerance." 

   Four of the boys say they would like to become navy SEALS. Doctors told reporters they lost an average of 9 pounds, regaining about 6.6 pounds in the hospital. 

New York Times

Maine Was First      
   

   Almost 70 years before national prohibition, Maine became the first state to ban alcohol sales in 1851. 

   The same force that powered local temperance movements, rural, Protestant, middle class people were alarmed by drinking habits. As the U.S. expanded west in the 1820s, farmers found it more profitable to ship their grain east in the form of whiskey.

   In 1930, the average American - even counting children and the elderly - was drinking five gallons of hard liquor a year. Middle-class evangelicals, wishing to curb drinking, drove the Maine effort.

   Ohio and Illinois also shared anti-drinking sentiment.

Source: Smithsonian magazine

Will This Cool You Off?

The Worst Killers    
   
   Could it be sharks? Bees? About 53 people a year die from bee stings, worldwide. Deer-related car accidents? - 130. 

   Some 500 are killed each year by elephants or hippos. Another 1,000 die from crocodile attacks. 

   Surely, not man's best friend! Dogs kill about 25,000 people a year. Snakes kill twice that many. But the No. 1 baddies of nature are mosquitoes - claiming an average of 1 million humans annually from their associated diseases. 

   So, respect the shark's instincts, but give them a break. They claim five to eight people a year. Consider this: mosquitoes can't help it. Bees don't kill on purpose. 

   Those who can "help it," ourselves. Fellow humans kill others by murder, car accidents and other ways at an average rate of 1.3 million annually. 

   You have a 1 in 63 chance of dying from the flu, but a 1 in 3.7 million chance of death from shark attack. Very few species of sharks actually eat marine mammals. In fact, sharks are a key indicator of ocean health (we add, they no doubt are more environmentally friendly than we are). Fear lightning. 

       Jimmy

               Source: Shark Biology and Fisheries Science Lab at Texas A&M.





     

   Even Greater    

Jesus told his disciples that anyone with faith in him

would do even greater things than him. 

(John 14:12)

because

He was going to the Father

meaning

He would send the Holy Spirit

The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

1 John 4:4

why?

So that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

John 14:13

In Psalm 34, David advises:

Praise the Lord

Boast in the Lord

Glorify the Lord

Seek the Lord

Look to the Lord

Call on the Lord

Listen to the Lord

Seek peace and pursue it

Turn from evil and do good

Taste and see that the Lord is good

In chapter 4, James calls for humility.

Come near to God and He will come near to you.

From last Sunday's sermon

The Case Against Back-Alley Abortions  

   A politically moderate, staunch Catholic, Gary Woodcock is a retired lieutenant from the Baltimore Police Dept. His story: 

   "I joined (the Department) in 1959, 14 years before the 1973 decision. My post included Maryland General Hospital. One evening I took a report of an injured woman at the hospital. 

   "A car was parked at the entrance. Blood was on the back seat with more puddled on the ground. A trail of blood led inside. I went to the ER desk looking for paperwork. There wasn't any. 

   "A nurse and a doctor were arguing. The nurse wanted to present the case as a miscarriage, the doctor as an abortion ... which would involve the Abortion Squad - three police women, two male detectives, a male supervising sergeant and a prosecuting attorney.   

   "The abortionist was a midwife who had lost her license to alcoholism and mistakes. The young woman had wanted to end the pregnancy so she could enjoy Christmas. 

   "Another night, in the ER of a Catholic hospital, a nun supervisor was viciously berating a nurse. A sobbing young woman lay on a table. The nurse treated the woman, then convinced the attending physician to write an antibiotic prescription without examining her. 

   "The nun called the Abortion Squad ... which began the interrogation of both patient and nurse. This was well before Miranda warnings. They threatened the woman with arrest unless she named the abortionist. The nurse was fired. 

   "Teenagers, young women, women with too many children - many still bleeding from their procedures - were threatened with arrest, harshly interrogated and browbeaten until they named their providers. 

   "Informants were everywhere. Churches had the phone numbers. Parents reported their own daughters. Squads looked for the discarded fetus. They tried not to vomit. 

   "A nurse told me that a woman who wants an abortion will find a way, consequences be damned." 

 Woodcock does not want to see a return to illegal abortions.

The Case Against Roe     

We summarize Rich Lowry's opinion of the 1973 opinion.

   With Roe vs. Wade again in the news, Lowry, National Review, slammed Justice Blackmun's 1973 majority opinion as a "travesty" that should be "excised." 

   In the third trimester, states must allow exceptions to protect the life or health of the mother, defined as "emotional, psychological, familial," as well as "the woman's age." There's a way out for anyone. 

   Lowry says "the argument that Roe's policy preferences are mandated by the Constitution is flatly preposterous." After the decision came down, a Harvard Law professor, who supported legalized abortion, wrote that, "Roe is bad because ... it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of obligation to try to be." 

   Years later, a former Blackmun clerk wrote, "...no one has produced a convincing defense of Roe on its own terms." Lowry adds, "none is possible." 

   The court "found" a right to abortion in the 14th Amendment, in which no state can "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Lowry sees "no obvious or even subtle connection to legalized abortion." 

   Wrote Blackmun, "abortion is so central to liberty that no restriction on it can stand constitutional scrutiny." Unborn children were not "persons in the whole sense." He even used the minimum age for presidents to prove that some rights are not for everyone. "This is too stupid for words," Lowry huffs. 

   Democrats say Roe is "settled law." Lowry notes that 60 years after Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal), the court in Brown v. Board of Education overturned it. 

   Guess it wasn't "settled" when the court wanted to unsettle it.

       Jimmy

Tomorrow: The case against back-alley abortions

     

Just the Facts, Mam    

   If you are over 60, you recognize that line from Dragnet, a TV program in 1951-59 and 1967-70. When Detective Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb, encountered a WWW (wordy woman witness 😊), he cut to the chase: Just the facts, Mam.  

   Wouldn't it be neat if all of us waited for the facts when we're digesting news, statements and associated commentary? That's what journalists are supposed to do, get the facts and report, just the facts. 

   In today's 24/7 news cycle, the winner is the person or news team that breaks the story first. They can correct the facts tomorrow. Few will notice. 

   Here's a small but tragic example from Tampa Bay. June 26, a garbage truck backed away from a dumpster, hit a retired teacher, 65, and dragged her 20 or 30 feet. 

   On seeing the TV report, we wondered, didn't she hear the backup alarm garbage trucks have? 

   A witness reported, and TV repeated, that she wore earbuds, a risky habit on city streets. People went online to criticize the deceased woman for using earbuds, further upsetting her family members. 

   Days later, the medical examiner reported that she wore hearing aids - a 180-degree difference. The report didn't mention backup lights or alarms, but said the impounded truck has two back-up cameras. 

   The apparently inconsolable (not yet a fact) driver is on paid leave. He has four citations on his driving record over 10 years. Investigation continues.

   We confess to reacting quickly to information from politicians and news outlets. With leisure time in retirement, we're getting better at withholding judgment. 

      Jimmy

   Did You Ever?   

   Did you ever see so many adults acting like someone just stole their favorite teddy bear? 

   Before the president's choice for justice was known, women by the Supreme Court building were screaming - screaming - how horrible this candidate is. U.S. senators, supposedly the adults in Congress, are demanding we know that every right known to man and womankind will be destroyed. The president has done the bidding of the devil. 

   Rise up, peasants! Take the castle. Or the world as we know it will cease to exist. Yes, it's about that bad. (What they really fear is that their grip on Washington will slip even further.) 

   Here at Views, we believe in free speech, even if the same speech - Roe vs. Wade - comes up every time a Republican president nominates a justice. We'll fret when more than half the voters buy what the Left is selling to people who don't think. 

   Amazing isn't it, what people will do and say to keep their power? Even Senate Democrats who might buck their party will do so mostly to keep their jobs in "red" states. Maybe that's democracy. Like him or not, Trump is winning, and the opposition is having a tantrum. This is one Republican (so called) they can't manipulate. 

   Gary Abernathy, owner and publisher of a paper in Hillsboro, Ohio, has an interesting view on the abortion scare. He finds it "illogical" that we celebrate advancements that save lives in the womb, while arbitrary choice ends them. Life begins at conception. Period!  

   Abernathy is pro-life, but he doesn't worry much about the law. He sees it "much like the failed effort to enforce prohibition. The problem is not the legality, it's that there is a demand for it." 

   "If we believe every unborn child is a gift from God, we should ... convince more people of its merit," he says. "Even if Roe is overturned, abortion will still be in demand, because hearts haven't been changed." 

      Jimmy

Explaining Our View    

   Our readers deserve to know exactly what we see with our view by the sea, here in beautiful Florida. So, we compiled stats for the year 2017.

   We viewed a total of 173,552 pounds of trash on our beaches and waterways. Of that, there were:

95,679 cigarette butts

74,420 plastic bottle caps

37,683 food wrapers

31,948 plastic bottles

26,500 straws

   Hey, we're not the only litterbugs on the planet. Each year, about 8 million metric tons of plastic enters the oceans around the world. 

Views Under Water   

   Admittedly, we can't "view" what's under the water, but here is what researchers from four universities discovered in seven years of work in the Gulf of Mexico, including waters off Cuba. The top five species:

1. Atlantic sharpnose shark

2. Red snapper

3. King snake eel

4. Tile fish

5. Gulf smoothhound

   And you thought it might be grouper, snook, tarpon and oil rigs. 

      Jimmy

UPDATE: As you may know, all the boys and their soccer coach have exited the cave in Thailand. Four SEALs including a doctor had stayed with them until the end. One of boys had sent a note ahead to his parents, "I will do my chores."    😃  Parents had sent a message telling the coach that they didn't hold him responsible. Interesting. Some of the boys need more medical help than others. The last four came out on stretchers. 
  

Brave Boys; Heroic Divers  

Update 11:30 a.m.

   You've probably been following dramatic rescue attempts in northern Thailand, where 12 young boys and their soccer coach have been trapped in a flooded cave since June 23. As of this writing, Monday, 9:40 a.m. our time, eight kids have been brought out by Thai divers. The boys are in hospital isolation. A 13th boy went home after soccer practice for some fortunate reason.   

   Divers placed about 100 oxygen tanks along the twisty, narrow, flooded escape route of 2-1/2 miles, and all were used up. Oxygen is being replaced before the final five rescues can begin. Daylight is best, probably tonight our time, to facilitate all the outside work that is needed. 

   Meanwhile, in the sea off southern Thailand, other divers are retrieving bodies of kids found in the arms of their mothers after a tour boat capsized in 16-foot waves. Most or all of the 41 people found so far were Chinese. Not a good view by the sea. 

   Some families are rejoicing. Some are grieving. It's our world. 

   Thai navy SEALS and those from the U.S., Japan and Australia are working the cave rescue. Just to reach the trapped boys and return with notes for their families took 11 hours. One boy wrote, "Mom and Dad, please don't worry. I am fine." Bringing the boys out involves hiking, climbing, affixing oxygen masks and tethering them through muddy, rushing waters.

   Divers also apply antiseptic, reassure the boys, coach them on what to expect, and joke with them to keep things calm. A freak-out might cost a life. One diver ran out of air himself while placing air tanks.

   From our easy-chair vantage point, we view Thai authorities as top-notch in this emergency, almost unprecedented, and hundreds of rescuers as highly disciplined. What they are doing is "the last resort," but due to the rains, they're doing it. Very impressive. 

       Jimmy

   PS. In a dark, narrow passage, how does a diver know another one isn't approaching from the other direction?  




   

What Does God Look Like?     
 
   Political liberals and conservatives - like everything - manage to see God differently.

   Aside from when the Son took on human likeness, God is Spirit. Researchers in North Carolina asked 551 Christians what they think God looks like. 

   Their composite has God being white, young and clean cut, with a vague, Mona Lisa smile. All Christians in the survey came with a bias.

   Liberals imagined God as "more feminine, younger and more loving." Conservatives had in mind a God who is "more powerful." 

   The project's lead author said, "These biases might stem from the type of societies that liberals and conservatives want. Conservatives are more motivated in a well-ordered society, one that would be best regulated by a powerful God."

   "Liberals are more motivated to live in a tolerant society, which would be better regulated by a loving God."

   Here at Views headquarters - our only research involves the Bible - we have no opinion on God's looks. What we do know from Isaiah 53:2 is that the Redeemer came without handsome features; we also know those features were unrecognizable after Roman soldiers were done beating him.

   Artists depictions are meaningless.

   We like the fact that Jesus didn't grow up looking like Hollywood's leading man. He came seeking character, godliness and obedience, and mainly to die for us, not that we would follow his good looks. If anything, He identified with the least among us. 

To liberals and conservatives alike: God has both compassionate

 and authoritative attributes. He is both loving and powerful. 

He is both tolerant - thankfully - and ultimately intolerant. 

(See Friday's blog.) 

      Jimmy

   

Did Washington Lie?     

   This is an image of younger George Washington, tall and athletic, a skilled soldier, avid horseman and graceful dancer.
Can you believe it? 

   We were taught that GW never told a lie. But now we have letters "in his own words" that he sympathized with the British monarchy and thought the American cause was doomed. 

   Can you believe that? No, you can't. 

   Those letters "to his friends" were carefully forged and first appeared in London in 1777. They also circulated in pamphlets during Washington's presidency. 

   A publisher claimed they had been found when Washington's servant, Billy Lee, was captured. 

   Fake news.

   GW apparently ignored the letters, until they appeared again near the end of his presidency. On his last day in office, March 3, 1797, the president wrote to his secretary of state for posterity.

   The origin of the letters was wrong. Neither Billy Lee nor any Washington documents had ever been captured. 

   Washington wanted to rebut the letters, if only to assert a simple truth:

"I have thought it a duty that I owed to myself, to my country 

and to truth ... that the letters herein described are a base forgery, 

and that I never saw or heard of them until they appeared in print." 

   From the U. of Virginia Washington Papers project: Fake letters were not unusual for their time. Many politicians and writers schemed against each other. Rumors and innuendo ran rampant.

   Unity and idealism gradually dissipated by the late 1790s; extreme partisanship had begun. GW was fed up and wanted to retire to Mount Vernon. 

   Politifact says fake news ... skullduggery itself is a huge part of American history.

   Who can we believe?

        Jimmy