Vote for Joe

“Up, up, and away…” –photo by Joe

Bluffton was one of 53 sites along the recent total solar eclipse “Path of Totality” for NASA’s Eclipse Balloon Project. College teams from as far away as Alaska participated, with the University of Wyoming team traveling some 1,200 miles to get to Bluffton. Team leader Phil Bergmair told me the helium balloons (sent up each hour over a 30-hour span) were attached to devices to monitor the fluctuation of temperature, humidity, and the presence of lower atmospheric infra-gravity waves. *If you didn’t know there are lower atmospheric infra-gravity waves — you are not alone. *Note: While interviewing the students, I learned that a good number of them, involved with the overall project nationwide, were majoring in STEM, and some would be publishing their data in various scientific journals. Note 2: During a talk at the University of Notre Dame a number of years ago, I said that NASA is using the brightest minds to calculate getting us to places, like the moon, Mars, et. Al, where there is virtually no gravity, no oxygen, no soil to grow stuff in… The caveat to this post of course being: Is the science these students are engaged in, in this case the Balloon Project, actually worthwhile? It’s a question we should be asking a lot more of in America, with subjects across the board.

Joe as a Rec. Center coach in the heart of Cleveland

Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) gave the Republican response to the State of the Union Address from her kitchen in what I am sure is a pretty nice, well-appointed, safe home in the suburbs. She echoed the predominant Republican talking points: a more secure border; a better economy; protecting the American Dream in general. Problem is: These are, for the most part, selfish talking points. A majority of people coming here from south of the border are in desperate straits from extreme abject poverty, cartel violence… The answer isn’t to shut them out. The answer is to have a simple, user-friendly asylum process, and concurrently, a sound vetting process. And middle-class, and up (like Ms. Britt’s family), Americans should be sacrificing their lifestyles to help as many people as possible make a solid transition to our country. Or, frankly, many of us are going to meet a (tall) border wall at Heaven. And on the better economy and the “America First,” protecting the American Dream deal… Once again, this, in its current paradigm, is so tremendously First World selfish — in the face of billions of people living in deplorable slum conditions world-wide. People who are continually food insecure world-wide, don’t have access to clean drinking water, adequate medicine, adequate schools… Note: And the reason for the photo above? For five years, our family did outreach in a hardscrabble part of Cleveland, amidst poverty, gang violence, drugs… These kids, these families, in our cities, have also been abandoned by many of our myopic pursuits, and upward ascent, of the American Dream as well. And, with some more sacrifices, we have the wherewithal to help them considerably too. For more on our experience in the city, see…

State of the Union rebuttal (Part I): I gave a State of the Union Address in an auditorium at Notre Dame University in 2010, the same night Obama was giving one of his. Thinking about it now, in the aftermath of Biden’s State of the Union Address last night, the only thing that’s changed since 2010, through the lens I look at things, is most everything has gotten worse, way worse… A lot of women in the audience last night were wearing white, symbolizing “reproductive rights.” They should have worn red, symbolizing “blood,” as the baby is ripped apart in the womb. Biden said, if elected again, he’d restore “Roe” as the law of the land. Biden bills himself as a “faithful Catholic.” The Catholic Catechism expressly calls abortion, at any stage (even embryos), as unequivocal “murder.” Biden is deluded, with a tremendous exponent! What’s more, most of the Catholic hierarchy in America don’t have the spiritual balls to confront Biden (Pelosi, Tim Kane…) on a public level — even though these people are the biggest players in this modern-day Holocaust. Biden said “…freedom is under attack.” These little babies are under attack! Mother Theresa continually said abortion (world-wide) could well lead to a nuclear Holocaust. We stand at the brink. We’re looking at the World War III, which is currently incrementally unfolding, as a geopolitical chess match. We should be looking at our collective, world-wide, HUGELY grave sin with abortion (and that’s just one grave sin of many at this point), and realize God seems to merely be incrementally taking His hand off the world… And in this grave sin ballpark, you’ve also got Biden pushing gender fluidity to the hilt — something his (cough) Catholic Church labels as mortal sin. And, according to the Bible, sin that is an absolute “abomination” in God’s eyes. And with this also becoming mainstream around the world, that’s right, God, once again, could well be allowing the global society to self-destruct. It would happen to the Israelites every time they got far afield from God. And we’re SO beyond ‘far afield’ at this point, it’s not even funny, but rather tremendously tragic. *Stay tuned for more…

atmospheric river rendition @ lajolla.com

The Bible’s “Book of Jeremiah,” at one point (Jeremiah 11), references “Judah’s Broken Covenant.” The cliff note: God tells Jeremiah to “broadcast” to the people of Judah that He’s going to bring “calamity” on them because they keep following “…their evil desires,” and not His commands. Now… Playing point guard for “evil desires” in America, would, most decidedly, be: California — and its over-the-top liberal bent when it comes to abortion, gender fluidity, et. Al. And if that isn’t bad (read: evil) enough, at the heart of California is a Hollywood, which is beaming images of all the latter sin behavior, and much more (violence, sex/immodesty, rampant materialism…), out into the world at large. Well, as I type this, yet another ‘calamitous’ atmospheric river is hitting California. The series of these this winter have been record-breaking and wreaking all sorts of havoc out there. I heard a Weather Channel personality recently say that the flooding in California is reaching “Biblical proportions.” Hmm. I wonder if anyone is “…following the bouncing ball,” on this one. A device (bouncing ball) used, ironically enough, in “motion pictures.”

Schoonover Observatory: Lima, Ohio

In the last year, I’ve done a number of newspaper articles about next year’s “Total Solar Eclipse,” slated for April 8, 2024 — with the “…path of totality” being almost directly over our area. Hundreds of thousands of people will travel here from all over the globe. While I’m accepting of astronomy, and, indeed, believe it’s a worthwhile pursuit, in moderation; I, in no way, feel the same about space travel, not to mention the lunacy of a U.S. Space Force. Our stance is that we should be focusing all that money, and all that brain power, on solving the problems (poverty, environmental degradation, etc, etc…) on this planet. Sheer, common sense… One of the articles I wrote in the last month is about “Community Relief, Inc.” This is a local, Christian based non-profit that does all kinds of home repair/construction to help low-income people in about a 75-mile radius. *Much closer than going to Mars… This area also has what’s called the Mennonite Home Communities of Ohio. These are four “campuses” of senior living facilities. And besides a quite expert staff, MHCO also has a cadre of community volunteers who help on multiple levels. I just did an article about a master woodworker in Bluffton who is developing a series of Woodcarving Classes for the MHCO residents. Why? “To pay it forward,” he winked. Note: Our position paper on Social Security is heavy on helping seniors feel “socially secure” in our communities in general — like it was in the “old days.” To look at that paper, see…