Vote for Joe

The average price of gas in 1966 in America (the year this Mustang was manufactured) was 32 cents a gallon, the equivalent of $2.20 today. The average price of gas in America this week just topped $5 a gallon. Your average American, in turn, is having to be smarter about traveling. Less trips, more ‘staycations,’ if you will. When they do go to, say, the grocery store, they now go with a thorough list, so they don’t have to make another trip just for, like, the mayonnaise they forgot. (The Amish are great at that in regard to taking the buggy to the market once a week.) If, in fact, global warming is real — which I happen to believe it is — then these conservation measures, including more walking, bicycling, and so on, can only be good. Note: For more on our transportation position paper, see…

Again… This time it was at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. There were 19 children killed in the mass shooting, as well as two adults. Biden talked last night afterward and said it was “…time to stand up to the gun lobby, for God’s sake!” That’s, oh, a bit woefully one-dimensional. Why is this happening? Wholesale slaughter of the unborn opens the door to sweeping violence (through more and more demonic influence) across the board in our country. And Biden is a major player in allowing for that. Our media/entertainment viewing habits drive ratings to keep violent shows on, as they continue to influence the populace in general, and those who are mentally unbalanced in specific (the ones who pick up a gun). Social mores in our country allow for, say, rap and heavy metal music drumming violent lyrics constantly into our brains. There is not enough emphasis on mental health counseling in America, especially as mental disorders continue to ramp up. Poverty/socio-economic disparity drives some to do desperate, violent things. And yes, guns are too prevalent and lethal these days.

President Biden laid out his plan for dealing with rising inflation today. And while some of it seemed measured and well thought out, a significant portion of it was akin to: rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Biden, for one, alluded to supply chain problems. And he said that this needed to be streamlined again, so, as an example, we could ramp up the much needed building of new homes. Using, of course, lumber that is depleting rain forests, are yet more energy sinks, and, through urban sprawl, are eating away at valuable farmland through the now ‘cancer’ of urban sprawl. (Deck chair #1.) Our administration would suggest a moratorium on new builds, while concurrently promoting retro-fitting current structures for house sharing, and such. If global warming is real, I mean, why add more fuel to the fire, so to speak? And speaking of fire, Biden is talking about releasing more oil from America’s strategic reserves so the price of gas might come down, at least in the short term. Yeah, right. In the face of catastrophic climate change that’s looming like a Doomsday Scenario above us, let’s get those prices down so we can all drive more. (Deck chair #2.) It’s time we start to: “question internal combustion.”

Weighing in on the “Roe” controversy, following the Supreme Court leak yesterday… The science: A full genetic code is infused at the time of conception. “Life” begins at conception. It wouldn’t take an anatomy professor at Dartmouth to figure that out. In turn, killing the baby at any point after that is murder (this is what the Catholic Church unequivocally teaches). And speaking of the ‘spiritual’: Abortion opens a wide door to the demonic, with people participating in it on any level (including even voting for pro-choice politicians). Extrapolated out, the more people being demonically manipulated in a country, the darker, spiritually, the country becomes. That’s “Spirituality 101” in Christian moral theology circles. And, frankly, all you have to do is take even a somewhat objective look at how sinful America has become in recent years. Biden said a “Roe” reversal would be a “slippery slope,” putting other things like gay marriage, etc., in jeopardy. If I were president, my paradigm would be, yes, this could, indeed, be the beginning of a “slippery slope” — toward Making America Moral Again (“MAMA”). Which brings us back to, well, mothers (and fathers), children, and how God intended for this thing to be all along.

I just did a newspaper article about a local Mennonite Church Community Garden. As you can see from the photo, these people take gardening seriously. The garden coordinator told me this used to just be a big patch of grass south of the church, until 2013. That’s when one of the Sunday School classes decided to make the land a lot more productive. They sub-divided it into 16 rather large plots, added a good deal of compost to the soil, and have turned it all into a rather thriving thing. Mennonites believe we are to be good stewards of God’s creation. And what’s more, they believe they are to help those less fortunate. So, a lot of this produce every season finds its way to several local food banks and soup kitchens.