The GOP Workers Party    

   One hundred one years ago, Vladimir Lenin returned to St. Petersburg, Russia, founding a movement that claimed to champion ordinary people, the workers. Wealthy Russians lost their property and sometimes their lives.

   What began in 1917 and spread to much of the world soon became anything but friendly to workers. Dictatorships ruled citizens with an iron fist, while touting the economic justice of Marxism. Economies suffered. Tens of millions of people under Communist regimes have been murdered.

   An author, F.H. Buckley, has published The Republican Workers Party, to explain President Trump's approach. Trump himself used the term "Workers Party" at the 2017 CPAC conference, to describe what he wanted the GOP to be. 

   Trump, Buckley says, calls himself a "right-wing Marxist." He sees public policy "through an economic prism." Trump is far more a friend to workers than Communist leaders. 

   Like most countries, America has different classes, and Buckley thinks this is our revolutionary time. He says, 
 

"It is like 1917, except that now 

it's the Left that is counter-revolutionary, 

wanting to keep things as they are, unjust and unequal."

   "It wasn't free-market capitalism that made us immobile," he says. "Instead, it was all the barriers to advancement that liberals created, through statutes and regulations that place a stumbling block in the path of those who seek to rise." 

      Jimmy

Here We Go Again           

   We knew that a judicially conservative nominee for Supreme Court justice would worry Democratic senators, who prefer long-term power in the Court to come-and-go power in Congress.

   Christine Ford is a psychology professor at Palo Alto University. She claims to have been a victim of abuse at a party, which she thinks occurred in the summer of 1982 when she was 15. 

   In 2012, she and her husband attended therapy. She spoke of an attack by two students from "an elitist boys' school." 

   Her husband told an interviewer that (six years ago) his wife used the name Kavanaugh (who was a federal judge then) and was concerned that one day he might be nominated to the Supreme Court. (Really?) Mrs. Ford is a registered Democrat, if that matters. 

   When Judge Kavanaugh appeared on the short list of candidates, she contacted her congresswoman. Her letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein followed in late July. Feinstein didn't ask Kavanaugh about this either in person or during the hearings. Strange.

   A Washington lawyer said Mrs. Ford took and passed a polygraph test. Her story leaked. (Who leaked it?) The FBI received it and sent it to the White House for Kavanaugh's background file. The White House sent it to the Senate Judiciary Committee, making it available to all senators. 

   Friday, Chairman Charles Grassley released a letter from 65 women who say they have known the judge for the past 36 years. They defended his character, integrity and respect for women. Several appeared on TV. 

   Kavanaugh denies the accusation. The other boy mentioned by Mrs. Ford is Mark Judge, today a filmmaker and author. Judge insists Kavanaugh is innocent. 

   We don't know the truth, or whether one woman's (inebriated?) memory from 36 years ago outweighs the 65 women who vouch for the judge over the entire 36 year stretch. She deserves to be heard. 

   We do know it's permissible to be a routine adulterer (and worse) while in the White House - FDR, JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton. And it's okay to be a powerful senator who drove off a bridge - his female passenger drowning - leaving the scene - Ted Kennedy. 

   Democrats hope to stall this appointment and win November's election. We remember the ugly theatrics in 1991 - Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill. Next Monday...same show, different people.  

       Jimmy



   

How Are We Made?    

      We know how glass is made...how carpet is woven...
how steel is forged. 

   But, how were we made? David wrote in Psalm 139 that God knitted him together in his mother's womb. He admitted to his Creator, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." 

   The process of embryonic cells knitting into tissues and organs is mystifying, but scientists at the Univ. of California say they have found the key.

   "In a nutshell," the lead researcher wrote, "we discovered a physical mechanism that cells use to mold embryonic tissues into their (three dimensional) shapes." In the study, published in the journal Nature, researchers observed the embryonic development of zebrafish, which grow similar to human embryos.  

   They saw that cells coordinate by exchanging biochemical signals.

   Some cells either latch onto or push away from certain other cells, forming organs such as eyes, lungs and heart. Cells in certain locations have higher activity than others.

    When cells push and tug at one another, heat builds up, which melts foamy tissue into a liquid. When the liquid cools down and begins to solidify again, it does so in a controlled manner to form the organ shape. Researchers likened this to the process of glass molding or 3-D printing. 

   This discovery is far more than a curiosity. Scientists hope to engineer better 3-D organs or understand how cancerous tumors form and invade surrounding tissues. 

   They already know that cancer is a switch from solid-like tissue state to a fluid-like state. They hope to learn more about this switch, and develop ways to combat it. 

   Amazing as this discovery is, imagine our Creator making the first two humans - fully grown! 

      Jimmy

   Wide and Narrow Gates   

   Jesus taught that the majority of people will not follow him on the road that leads to life. His road involves humility, true repentance, self-denial, obedience, faith, love...even love for (the souls of) enemies.

   In his sermon on the mount, He promised great blessings to those who follow him, but also that we can expect persecution on earth. That is the case in many countries, and Christian haters are on the rise here as well. 

Enter through the narrow gate.

For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction,

and many enter through it.

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life,

and only a few find it.

Jesus

Matthew 7:13-14 

Let's Go Out to Play     

   Don't know about you, but in childhood I played outdoors extensively. Scouting offered nice opportunities. Our family camped in a tent - slept on cots - all summer for six years. 

   Even when education, Army service (at a government typewriter), and civilian office work took priority, my thoughts were with my sailboat or canoe and anyplace beyond city streets. 

   My youngest son had a well-paying job in a Chicago skyscraper. When he couldn't take the city anymore, he gave it up and continues exploring the West as often as possible. He spent several weeks touring the lakes and mountains of New Zealand.

   Maybe you are committed to an indoors job, but stare out the window longing for a taste of nature.

   All this may be built into us. What was Adam and Eve's first environment? Probably something like a national park, only more beautiful.  

   Scientific studies reveal the benefits of being in nature. Research shows that time outdoors leads to less impulsive decision making. 

   Exposure to nature - hiking, boating, bird watching, fishing, hunting, etc. - also reduces anxiety and stress, leading to improved health, healthier choices and better sleep. Outdoor activity can reduce recovery time following surgery. 

   Researchers credit evolution (man's early environments) for these benefits. But, the Bible tells of God creating a garden perfectly suited for the children of His design.

   Maybe I should give up blogging and purchase another canoe.

Source: Julie Borg, WORLD magazine

      Jimmy 

Was Congress Ever Civil?   

   Several times during the Judge Kavanaugh 
hearings, someone in the audience began 
screaming, interrupting the judiciary committee 
until security ushered out the protester. 

   No one gets a "ticket" to that room without approval from a senator. Therefore, one or more Democratic senators promoted incivility without appearing to initiate it.  

   But it was obvious. Their questions to the candidate sometimes were more scolding than scholarly. Even liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was approved by most GOP senators in 1993, denounced the charade.  

   Senate rules allow members one week to submit written questions to be answered by the nominee, on top of the many questions they asked in the hearings. Dems submitted 1,278 questions, more than all previous nominees in our history, combined. Presumably Judge Kavanaugh has until the committee votes next Thursday to answer their "questions." (This is our esteemed U.S.Senate.)  

   Was Congress ever mild mannered? Possibly, it was boring throughout decades when Dems held majorities and Republicans were content to play second fiddle...and before television gave members the opportunity to act out. 

   During the years before Civil War, Congress was sometimes violent, writes Joanne Freeman in The Field of Blood, because the nation was violent. There were riots in cities over immigration, and fighting on the frontier. The system of slavery was grounded in violence.

   Freeman uncovered about 70 violent incidents in Congress leading up to the war. Often, they featured a Southerner trying to intimidate a Northerner into compliance. 

   There were duel challenges, shoving and pulling guns and knives. In 1858 an argument turned into a mass brawl in the House...South vs. North. 

   Some men were elected because they played rough. Their constituents sent them to Washington to defend their interests with gusto. 

   This atmosphere helped push the country toward war. The press played up the fighting, creating an endless loop of anger. (Sound familiar?) 

   The Smithsonian magazine article says "This wasn't just about goofy guys in Washington - what goes on in Congress reflects the state of the nation."

       Jimmy 



   
    

Still Undecided?    
This Woman May Help     

   My opinion about child-parent reunification isn't well qualified. 

   Gay Courter's opinion is based on three decades of experience with the system. She was a guardian ad litem for 25 years.

   She wrote "I speak for this Child: True Stories of a Child Advocate," now used in recruiting and training guardians. She and her husband Philip produced more than 50 films on foster care, adoption and other child-welfare topics. Philip served for 10 years as chairman of a Standing Committee for Children and Families. 

   They have been foster parents, and adopted a daughter, age 12, who had been through 14 placements, many of them abusive, over nine years.

   After Jordan's death, Mrs. Courter wrote to the Tampa Bay Times that she watched people like Jordan's mother, herself once a foster child, grow up rootless, uneducated and engaged in substance abuse. Those without safe, permanent homes have gone to jail, been homeless, bore children who also ended up in the system, or died from violence or drugs.

   Jordan, she wrote, was a pawn to the policy of reunifying children at all costs. 

   "The court disregarded the voice of reason, the voice for the child: the guardian ad litem."

   "Even if Jordan had not been murdered, his life would have been dismal. Many youngsters suffer daily from abuse and neglect, and themselves end up in courts, jails and the mental health system. Child welfare specialists have superb tools to determine which families will never be safe," she writes.

   "Jordan's mother may spend the rest of her life in prison, costing far more than the price of protecting her own childhood, and Jordan's as well."

   Gay Courter considers the magistrate (whose signature is a scribble) among the guilty parties.

      Jimmy