Senior Sprinter 

   Julia Hawkins in November set a record for the 100-meter sprint in her age category with a time of 1:02.

   That may not sound impressive, but consider that she is 105 years old. In 2017 - for women over 100 in Louisiana - she ran 100 meters in 39.62. 

   Hawkins competed in senior games in her 80s as a cyclist, but "retired" when she could no longer find competitors her age.

Pray for Pam

   Thursday night Mrs. Donut received a call from her long-ago college sorority sister who was driving to Denver. Pam was one of hundreds of folks fleeing the fires burning in Colorado, where hurricane force winds turns a few sparks into a wipe-out of a couple communities near Boulder, CO. 

   As of Friday evening, we don't know if her home and her daughter's home were spared. 

And the Tornadoes 

   While that was happening, last night, our daughter and husband were returning north after visiting us this week. As we watched fires burning on the weather channel, we saw tornado watches in middle Georgia, right where the "kids" were headed.

   They were within 30 miles of Cordele along I-75 and were watching lightning movement as they drove, but managed to slip by without trouble. 

   So that's how 2021 says "sayonara" to the USA. 

   Our timing is a little off due to company taking over our visitor side, where the den and computer is, but we'll get back on schedule.

   Happy New Year!

            Jimmy

Hanson: Collapse of Woke Appeal 

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   "After 10 months of wokeism, polls show that voters don't like open borders. They disapprove of illegal immigration while supporting legal immigrants. They worry about crime and drugs. They don't want the unvetted and unvaccinated flowing across open borders.

   "People want cheaper, not pricier gas. They prefer U.S. energy self-sufficiency. Why, with cup in hand, go begging to Saudi Arabia and Russia to pump more supposedly Satanic oil?

   "People like police and they hate crime. Even the rich among the woke are now scared - some of whom sowed the wind of decriminalization and are themselves reaping the whirlwind of crime. 

   "Most voters care less about our color, but far more about our character. They think a meritocracy, not quotas and tribal chauvinism, explains the exceptional American standard of life.

   "They despise inflation as much as recession, and fear they may now get both. 

   "Freedom loving individuals don't like cancel culture, ostracism, iconoclasm and commissars. They prefer free speech and treasure the Bill of Rights. 

   "In just 10 months, the left got what it wanted. And the people are becoming not just sick of what has followed, but disgusted. They are terrified that the left isn't just failing, but also wrecking the country and them along with it.

   "Of the collapse of the woke appeal, perhaps we could say, 'It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of zealots.'"

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Hanson: Old Liberal Democrats in Hiding 

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   "Monetary theorists assured us that printing money would 'spread the wealth' and devalue the cash of undeserving capitalists. Printing more cash, they believed, would help the needy who unfairly had too little.

   "Inflation would be a good thing, they hoped, a sign of a newly empowered and robust consumer class long denied 'equity.'

   "COVID was virtually over. President Biden assured us that Trump had killed more than 350,000 Americans with his lax health policies. Biden would soberly vaccinate us all, claiming the vaccine's efficacy as his own. 

   "He predicted victory by the Fourth of July. The Delta variant was still then just a rumor from abroad.

   "The border would be opened - and stay open. No more walls. As citizens of the world, the left welcomed 2 million immigrants without audit or vaccinations during a pandemic.

   "As the woke drove terrified old liberal Democrats into hiding, all the old wisdom about human nature vanished. Forget that criminals hurt the poor the most. Discard the quaint idea of Martin Luther King Jr. that our character, not our color, determines who we are. Ignore the idea that inflation eats away at the wages of the working class.

   "We could always assume the lockdowns and shutdowns that made Amazon, Target, Walmart and other conglomerates hundreds of billions in profit while the mom-and-pop small businesses went broke. 

   "So, what did the people conclude 10 months out from the woke getting their wishes?" 

Tomorrow: What the polls reveal

Is Woke a Yoke, or a Joke? 

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   Over the next three days Views provides excerpts from a fascinating column by Victor Davis Hanson regarding the Woke movement. On Friday we'll return to our faith-based offerings.

Hanson, of the Hoover Institution, is a commentator on contemporary politics and a military historian. See        what he thinks about our nation's future.    

   "The 'woke' movement was giddy after January 20. The left controlled both houses of Congress. Joe Biden was drafted as the veneer of 1980s Democratic normality to ram through an otherwise hard-left agenda.

   "All major cultural, financial, economic, entertainment and media institutions played roles in seeing then-President Donald Trump not just defeated, but impeached, twice. 

   "So, academia, corporate boardrooms, Hollywood, the media, the Pentagon, professional sports teams, Silicon Valley and Wall Street all boarded the woke train. All boasted of ferreting out 'white rage' and hiring legions of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' czars. 

"Critical race theory would be mainstreamed to excise racism 

and discrimination by embracing racism and discrimination. 

   "Crime was to be seen as a construct created by the elite to protect their own privilege, prerogatives and property. Shoplifting, looting and street thuggery were just part of living in a normal city. 

   "'Social justice warriors' could replace defunded police. Gone would be most bail, incarceration, mandatory jail time, stop and frisk, and broken-windows deterrent policies.

   "Green agendas would fundamentally transform America, putting a stop to man-made 'climate change.' So, lots of oil and gas leases were either cancelled or their fees vastly increased. 

   "Pipelines were stopped. Gas and oil companies were warned that everything from lack of financing to new regulations would soon put them out of business. The golden age of wind and batteries was upon us."

Tomorrow: Spread the wealth; open the border

Jesus, the Jewish Martyr? 

   Marvin Olasky, who must read another book every day of his life, reviews four more in WORLD magazine.

   We focus on Healing the Schism, by Jennifer Rosner. She writes concerning relations between Christians and Jews.

   Rosner quotes Jacob Neusner - how Nazism, Communism and secularism attacked both Christian and Jewish ideals. So..."we cannot find it surprising that the first post-Christian century (the 1900s) also marked the last century of Judaism in most of Europe." 

   Olasky says "Those ideologies harmed both the physical and spiritual descendants of Abraham. The wonderful Jewish painter Marc Chagall said, 'For me, Christ has always symbolized the true type of Jewish martyr.'" 

   Rosner wrote, "Through Christ, the door is opened for gentiles to enter into covenant relationship with Israel's God - without becoming Jewish."

   Olasky, born Jewish, adds, "It's a tragedy that many Jews believe faithfulness to God of Israel requires saying no to the most famous Jew ever." 

   He quotes Rosner: "To the extent that Jews seek to follow and honor God while remaining indifferent to their Messiah and his mission, their understanding of and ability to fulfill their own redemptive vocation will always be limited."

   Olasky says, "Christians should push back against attempts to minimize the Jewishness of Jesus, and Jews should recognize that God's covenant with Israel was always intended to expand outward to include all nations."

   "Now in God's providence," he says, "some Jews such as myself profess faith in Christ and can be bridges between the two peoples."

~ ~ ~

December 28-30: Victor Hanson's insights on 2021

       Jimmy

Joy to the World 

   Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song. Let the sea resound and all that is in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy...

   For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

   Not exactly a Christmas carol, for this excerpt from Psalm 98 was the basis for Isaac Watts' text, celebrating the return of the Lord to judge the world. 

   We can sing this at Christmas, for the Lord is involved with his people, beginning at the stable in Bethlehem. Each Christmas we look back and praise God for the glorious gift of His Son. 

   But we also look forward to His return, when God will bring a righteous conclusion to all things. Judgment will not be joyful for unbelievers. Isaac Watts had in mind those who are waiting for salvation.  

   Then we will begin to fully enjoy "the wonders of His love." 

Joy to the world! The Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room.

And heav'n and nature sing.

Was the Night Really Silent? 

   Many of us have seen The Sound of Music more than once. The setting was Salzburg, Austria.

   In 1818, a Catholic priest and his organist, in that same region, high in the Austrian Alps, often talked about hymns. When their organ broke down just before Christmas, they urgently needed a hymn the congregation could sing without the organ. 

   Joseph Mohr the priest penned the words, and organist Franz Gruber wrote the music. It might have been one and done, had the organ repairman not shared it with others a few days later.

   When I was a young, we spent one Christmas 90 miles away with Grandma and my uncle and family. On Christmas eve we attended a midnight service at their Lutheran (Catholic-light) church. 

   I still remember feeling emotional when the congregation sang - with pipe-organ accompaniment - Silent Night, Holy Night.

   Well, the night was not so silent when awesome angels appeared in the sky, announcing the birth and singing alleluia. Then all was silent again, until excited shepherds - nobodies in the culture - began telling all of Bethlehem Who they had seen in the stable. 

   Stanzas 1 and 3

Silent night, holy night,

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon virgin mother and Child.

Holy Infant so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace,

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night,

Son of God, love's pure light.

Radiant beams from Thy holy face,

With the dawn of redeeming grace,

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth,

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.