Innovations

Thinking about getting older gives a person time and opportunity to also think about the things that make getting older a lot easier than it was when my parents were alive. We used to think things like electric refrigerators and washing machines were the sheer bearcat, especially because of the things they replaced. Washboards were replaced by wringer-washers, which were replaced, after a long career, with what was called “automatic” washers, because one turned the dials and adjusted the wash speed and water temperature, and didn’t have to attend it to dip soggy clothing out to put through the wringer, two hard rubber rollers held together with strong springs, which, when turning, would pull anything through them and sqeeze all the water out of them. The wringer was also a bad place for little girls to put their fingers, as I learned to my great pain and sorrow at about age three, having had my entire left arm pulled through and dislocated.

When we first moved to Utah in 1949, the house my parents bought had water and electricity. Period. Oh. There was an icebox in there. Yes, you heard right: Icebox. Made of wood, with wooden-dowel shelves, a galvanized lining, and a drip tray that caught water and had to be emptied two or three times a week. And my sister and I had the job of keeping the icebox cold. We did that every Saturday morning, by going to the neighbors to borrow their Radio Flyer wagon. Then Mom would give one of us “the money.” A fifty-cent piece. We took “the money” and the wagon, and walked around the block to the gas station, where we bought a 50-pound block of ice. The man would put it into the wagon, and we’d walk home (I seem to remember making this trip barefooted on numerous occasions…), pulling the ice behind us. The boys (my older brothers) would muscle the slippery block up into the ice compartment, then they would disappear for the day, while mom devised tasty dishes that would take advantage of the cold that washed down from that large block of shimmering, slippery ice.

Today, I can tell you that story and laugh, because my refrigerator (not “icebox” any more) now GIVES me ice, instead of me giving IT ice. A refrigerator with an icemaker/water dispenser is one of those modern conveniences that should be among the top 10 innovations of the century. The fridge that replaced that old icebox had a freezer compartment about the size of a 10-pound turkey, and was wrapped about in refrigerated coils that collected moisture, turned it to frost, and saved that frost until the little door wouldn’t close and the ice cube trays had to be chipped out with an icepick.

When my sister and I trudged over to the Turf and back pulling that borrowed wagon, arguing over who was going to carry “the money,” we had not the slightest inkling of the inventions and innovations that were poised on the edge of our lives, waiting to virtually fall into our laps. (As an aside, I continue to marvel at the fact that small appliances and consumer electronics are among the few things in the world whose prices continually fall. For instance, my first VCR cost over three hundred dollars. This latest one was a DVD player, and it was well less than $100. The VHS player is now all but obsolete. But, on with my thought…)

The generation coming up now, our children and grandchildren, have never seen iceboxes or wringer washers, rotary-dial telephones, or even microwaves with knobs and bells. Frozen foods and vacuum-sealed treats were far into the future for us, but they are taken for granted today, and life as we know it would be quite difficult without the convenience of these forms of prepared foods. In my young years, vegetables and fruits were picked by us, or purchased raw, then either canned at home, or purchased in metal cans at the store. (Home “canning” was really more like “jarring,” since the foods were put into jars and cooked in pressure cookers, then stored in the basement or garage in large cupboards or shelves.)

Frozen stuff went into square plastic containers that managed to work their way down to the bottom of the huge–and I mean HUGE–chest freezers (Can you imagine the job of defrosting something big enough to hold your grandfather’s coffin??). They were big like that because people still bought their year’s meat at a butcher shop, and they bought a “quarter” or a “half” and needed a place to put all that meat. Individual packaging and fast freight have made the meat counter of most grocery stores much smaller and less labor-intensive, and the modern kitchen doesn’t require a chest freezer big enough for a full bull moose when they can just stop at the store and pick up a 3-pound package of meat for supper on the way home from work.

Microwaves are among the finest of the more or less recent devices that have made such a place for themselves in the American kitchen that it is virtually unthinkable to find the kitchen of any cook without one. At one time, though, they really did have knobs and bells. They were also huge things, heavy and cumbersome, and they were incredibly expensive. Our first one was a hand-me-down that had originally cost over $1,000. Hard to believe. I guess you might still be able to find a thousand-dollar microwave, but it will probably be able to burp the baby and put out the cat. At the rate technology is leaping forward, there is no telling what sorts of consumer devices will be so commonplace to our children and grand children that they will be telling their grandchildren, “Why, I remember when you actually had to put food INTO the microwave! Yep, by cracky, you even pushed buttons to tell it how long to run. Ayuh, those were the days…”

Consumer appliances and electronics are the microcosm of technological advance. Gadgetry morphs and reproduces in ways we can’t even imagine. Speculation today, with the assistance of the powerful desktop computers available–computers so powerful they can do more than huge rooms full of “peripherals” and “mainframes” did 35 years ago–is limitless. Carrying a computer that powerful in a shoulderbag was such an unheard-of thing 50 years ago, that there weren’t even words to describe it. Even science fiction stories hesitated to go there.

Every time I think about getting older in today’s fast-paced, technologically-headlong world, I feel a little sad. Not because I think that everything that can be invented has already been thought of, of course, but because I only have just so much longer to watch what happens next.

It’s not fair. I want to stick around and watch the next round of innovations! Somebody, quick, think up a time machine for me, okay?

What’s Going On In The Rove Room?

Internet pundits are all talking lately about the Democrats’ fears for the election. The Left reasons thus: “The White House is so serene going into this election! This can only mean that they plan to STEAL it again!”

Even though the facts actually reveal that most, if not virtually all, previous cases of voter fraud in national elections has been perpetrated by the Democrat party, they continue to expound on this fear as if it was a reality. No other possible reason is even mentioned, let alone entertained. For the Left, the truth can only be as they say it is: The Republicans have the upcoming election already stolen.

My own explanation for the apparent calm at the White House is this: Bush has never let the Chinese firedrill of Democrat opinion sway him in any way. His demeanor is as it has always been: “Let them say what they will say; the truth will out.” This is a President who has also never let his policy be influenced by polls. He is a firm believer in the adage: “When your enemy is busy making an ass of himself, don’t stop him; just get out of his way.” Occasionally, he makes a choice that leave those of us who support him feeling rather disappointed, but overall, he has been a good, wise leader who has had some of the toughest choices in the history of the country to make.

He’s not out of the woods yet, by a long shot. The Left has a tendency toward revenge, and they do hate this President–not just as President, but as a man–with a visceral, vituperative mania that verges on pathological. Their only hope, they feel, is to undermine him by the taking of enough seats in government with this election to render him a “lame duck” for the rest of his Presidency. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be much of a problem for a “tamer” leader, in more peaceful times.

But Bush is facing some worldwide events that could have disastrous effects if they were allowed to go forward. The fact that North Korea has already tested a nuclear device is only part of the problem. Iran, never stable even once since Jimmy Carter’s White House helped engineer the overthrow of the Shah in the seventies, now holds its irresponsible, anti-semitic, and deranged finger over the nuclear button. Once before this problem arose. That time, Israel went in and bombed their nuclear plants back to mud bricks. It may evolve that they will have to do it one more time, for their own safety, in order to defuse the immediacy of the threat.

The Democrat fears are focused but irrational. They can’t seem to reason beyond their first solution, so having any other answer than theirs is simply unthinkable. To them, the biggest worldwide disaster they can imagine is that the Republicans will hold the seats they have, the Democrats will make no gains, and Bush will not be the lame duck they are hoping to impeach at some point in the next two years. Their desperation to accomplish this is more of the primal hatred they feel for Bush. They live to retaliate against him for 1) “Stealing” the election in 2000; 2) “Stealing” it again in 2004; and, worst of all; 3) the impeachment of William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, the boyish libertine who held the office before Bush. Somehow, in their mind, he was personally responsible for the impeachment, so he must be dealt with by a similar treatment.

“Projecting” their own plans onto the Republicans, they think, will distract the attention of the voters long enough for them to put their own election plans into motion. I don’t recall ever hearing of over 300 voter-registrations (filled in and signed) being confiscated, along with portable machines, from the trunk of any Republican operative’s automobile, but I do know it happened in Minnesota in 2004, and the owner/driver of the car was an activist Democrat campaign worker. That’s just one example, although time after time, those who are caught and charged in vote-fraud scams are almost invariably of the Democrat persuasion. Now, DON’T try to tell me that the Republican perps are being let off, or that they are just not publicizing their capture, because it won’t wash. The Democrats get caught at it because they are the ones who are DOING it.

The White House “calm” is as it has always been. Unmoved by the frantic, Chicken-Little propaganda from the Left, as always, it continues on its track. And, perhaps…just perhaps…there is a little room somewhere in the sub-basement where Karl Rove, that magnificent bastard, does his dirty work, floating rumors and using gossip and innuendo to frighten the Democrats into doing and saying the silly stuff they do so well.

Well, it was something to hope for, but I doubt if it’s anything as fun as a Rove Room next to the furnace of the White House. I suspect the truth is much more mundane: The Democrats simply can’t think past the lunch menu, and reasoning escapes their planners, leaving their pundits with nothing but wild speculation and worrywart projection. The truth is simply this: The White House “October Surprise” hasn’t occurred yet, if there even is one. But it was canny of them to mention one…

"Domine, ad quem ibimus?"

As usual, I’m probably the last person in the world who will weigh in on any given public topic. Although this one doesn’t have the wide-ranging, politcal impact of a lot of things going on in the world today, it has caused quite a stink in the Catholic Church.

Since the Sourdough purports to be a blog of Roman Catholic leanings and persuasions, I probably don’t have to elaborate too much on the event that polarized a large group of Catholics in the United States. Briefly, a prominent writer, who was also a Catholic, decided recently that he could not remain in the Roman Catholic Church any longer because of the cupidity, sinfulness, and depravity of some of its heirarchy, especially in regard to the homosexual priest scandals that still cause pain to everyday Catholics. Almost as an aside, he also took exception to the right of the Pope to speak infallibly on matters of Faith and Morals.

That being said, I also think it would be appropriate to add here that my first reaction was just that–a reaction. Most faithful Catholics have a bit of a hard time dealing with the knowledge that one who was supposedly one of their number has suddenly jumped ship, even though it is midnight and the sea is tossed by a vicious storm. To make sure I gave this gentleman his due, I went to his website and read his account of the episode.

One generally agrees to accept the Church, warts and all, when one is baptized and confirmed and becomes a communicant. Obviously, that does NOT mean that the Catholic Church is all-corrupt, all the time and that new members have to agree to look the other way when they see scandal. It means that we accept the fact that the Church’s membership is comprised of a billion people (minus a few jerks, crooks, and bums) who are trying to make their way to Heaven as well as they can. And, I do agree that what he wrote about was an agonizing situation, and I can deeply sympathize with his horror at what he found as he explored it, as any good writer would do.

What I don’t agree with is his course of action as a result of what he found. To pack up one’s family and stalk out of the church of a Sunday because the homily stinks to high Heaven is one thing. To pack up one’s family and stalk out of Holy Mother Church because one has uncovered the stink of corrupt bishops and priests and the apparent lack of interest on the part of the Vatican is quite another. So, as far as I can see through my research, my initial reaction was the correct one.

Faithful Catholics of whatever rite–and there are more than 20–love their Church, warts and all. They stay, and they struggle, and they pray. They pray that the Church will be restored, that the liturgy will be purified, and that the priesthood and seminaries will be cleansed of the kind of evil minds that brought about the scandal that caused Mr. Dreher to take his family and flee to the Russian Orthodox Church. They stay, and they work to bring about the necessary changes, even if they do nothing but show up every Sunday and pay their tithes. And if their parish is bad enough, if they leave, they only go to another one. If they find nothing in their area reverent or orthodox enough, they may simply switch rites for the time being. But the whole thing boils down to this: We can’t restore and renew the Church by leaving it. Jumping ship isn’t an option, when we know it’s the only ship on the ocean that can carry us safely to our destination.

Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar had this to say:

“Jesus must be Catholic, otherwise his Church, which follows him and is promised his fullness, could not be called Catholic. Being Catholic means embracing everything, leaving nothing out. How can an individual human being do this, even if he is the only begotten Son of God? We shall not explain this by theological speculation. It is something that can reveal itself to us only if, in the openness of faith, we let our eyes rest on his self-manifestation. He is the revelation of someone else, of the Father, who is “greater” than he, and yet with whom he is “one”. This is the message of his words and his life.”

For Catholics who love their Church, this is the crux of the matter. When Jesus asked the disciples if they, too, would leave him, St. Peter replied, “Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” Leaving the Church because we are angry at crooked, corrupt prelates may work for Rod Dreher. But it isn’t even an option for Catholics who really believe the Church is who Jesus Christ says it is. Fortunately for us, there are a lot more people coming in these days than leaving, and I’m sure that Dreher’s place in the pew will be filled quickly by someone who comes into the flock understanding that the Church is composed of sinners, and that nobody, not even bishops and Popes, are exempt.

(Personally, I think he’ll be back…)

From "The Gates Of Vienna"

Please go to the Gates of Vienna website and read the article there, called, “War and Peace on an Autumn Afternoon.” The small pictures can be seen full size by clicking on them. Thanks to the Baron and Dymphna.

Shaken Up

I was just reading about the swarm of earthquakes in Hawaii that occurred today. Is it my imagination, or has there been what seems to be a rise in tectonic activity in the last year or so? Minnesota didn’t need to worry much about earthquakes, but Coastal Alaskans are always on their guard. I know I still keep my canned goods in the bottom cupboards and my plastic bowls and containers in the upper shelves to prevent injury or damage when the house is shaken.

Since we’ve been back in Alaska, I’ve felt two tremors, both quite small, easily missed except for the fact that all was still and quiet at the time. Even a magnitude 4 or so doesn’t elicit much response from seasoned quake veterans, who feel as I do: If it doesn’t knock you down, it’s probably not serious. The Good Friday Earthquake in Prince William Sound, on the other hand, is still one of the two most powerful quakes ever recorded since Krakatoa. The revised scale puts its magnitude at 9.2, and it went on for an incredible, never-ending four minutes. Several towns were wiped out completely, including Valdez and the village of Chenega. Valdez’s townsite was moved four miles to a site on bedrock, and I don’t know if Chenega was ever rebuilt.

Francis Porretto at Eternity Road, talks about the power of the earth (and the world) and its ability to hold us this morning in his Sunday rumination, and it really seems to fit in with the happenings of today.

As did a lot of people, I spent a lot of time last night watching the presentations on the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004, its devastation, and the efforts of the countries affected to prevent such calamitous disaster in the future. Part of the reason for the incredible loss of life (over 200,000–more than 50,000 people have never been found) in the Indian Ocean was the simple ignorance of the people. No one, apparently, had taken the time to educate the citizens on proper earthquake/tsunami survial procedures, so the tidal outflow was regarded as a curiosity rather than a terrifying sign of what was imminent, and many people ran down to the beach to inspect the exposed rocks and sand instead of running away from the water as far as they could get. There’s just no substitute for preparation for disaster. The more we know and prepare, the better our chances of survival.

All of life is meant, as Francis said, as a lesson, an effort to prepare us for what comes after. Tsunamis follow large earthquakes. Eternity follows a life on earth. Both should be prepared for as well as we know how to do. Preparing for a tsunami or an earthquake takes common sense and a willingness to leave behind the physical and mortal trappings of our lives.

The Road to Eternity is a lot like that: We have to be willing to leave behind our mortal ties and the worldly goods that do the tying. Everybody gets eternity. There’s no getting around that. It’s a fact of life, like air. But not everybody is going to be ready for it, or happy with what they get. In that case, unless their ignorance was not of their own doing, they are going to have an eternity to contemplate how they got what they got. Those who prepare by learning how to take a step back from the physical things that tend to “own” them, on the other hand, may find that eternity is what they were looking for, all along.

Dying of old age or cancer gets us just as dead as drowning in a tsunami or getting shot in the heart, but the fact is that we can’t get out of life alive; can’t find eternity without dying for it. Most people don’t give much thought to what happens after they die, beyond the images of a hoary St. Peter guarding the Pearly Gates, golden quill in one hand and the scroll in the other. Apparently, a lot of us think that we will get a chance to plead our cause when we arrive at St. Peter’s desk, and that if we can produce enough “good” behavior to cancel out our “bad” behavior, or to plead ignorance, St. Peter will take the key and open the Gate for us. Unfortunately, the truth is probably a lot starker than most imaginations. For one thing, if you wake up some morning and find yourself dead, your judgment has already taken place, because, even an instant after death, there is no further repentance possible, no Court of Appeals at the Pearly Gates.

Death brings an end to all of our efforts, whether to find eternity, or escape it. It’s better to live a life making sure that we don’t repeat the sins of the past and being sorry for those we recall than it is to die without having given ourselves the opportunity to see what really lies behind the Gates.

Bridge-Building

The use of taxpayer monies to help fund Public Works projects seems to be really cool with most people…except when the projects are in Alaska. I was really surprised by the venom from apparently-sensible people in the South 48 who thought their money might have to go to help pay for 1) A bridge between Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley across the Knik Arm, cutting about 30 minutes from the usual 1-hour commute (and, incidentally, “opening up” more of the Mat-Su to residential construction for homes for Anchorage-ites…but, more anon), and 2) A bridge to a nearby island containing the airport for the Southeastern (“Panhandle”) town of Ketchikan, which is on an island, and has also run out of growing room. To hear them squeal, you would think these taxpayers had never benefitted from a porkbarrel project in their district which used monies from some other state. Apparently, some people think because Alaska has oil, it shouldn’t get any Federal money of any kind. I think THEY think we are all wealthy beyond belief. Whatever.

Now, Alaska IS able to fund the construction of both bridges without too much of a struggle. The population of the state is only about 2/3 of a million, with half of those living in Anchorage. And the oil revenues make it possible for Alaskans, as shareholders in the oil industry of the state, to receive dividend checks once a year from the Permanent Fund, which is invested in the Prudhoe Bay production. And, it looks like it may just work out that we will have to do it ourselves if we really want it done. But that’s not the point of this essay.

As a matter of fact, I think I am against the Knik Arm bridge. I say that as a proud piece of Valley Trash, and I think the Valley Trash are going to be the big losers if this bridge becomes a reality, mostly because Anchorage is home to lots of –believe it or not–elitists. These fine folks think anyone who lives on this side of Knik Arm are hillbillies and crackers (hence the name, Valley Trash) who are not smart enough to pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.

So, I don’t know how the rest of the VT’s are going to take having an influx of uppity Anchorage-ites moving over here, demanding all kinds of services and luxuries, driving up property values (and taxes), creating congestion, and skewing the politics of this area.

The bridge is inevitable. It will get built, and it’s only a matter of sooner rather than later. And I hope the people of Wasilla, Palmer, Big Lake, Houston, etc., have thought it through. Because the CONSEQUENCES of the construction of that bridge are going to be numerous, wide-ranging, and very expensive. It will probably also mean that a lot of happy Valley Trash are going to have to go find themselves someplace else (until the immigrants from across the Arm outgrow THIS area, as well, and start looking for another town to overwhelm with their snooty ways and their demands for municipal luxuries and fancy-schmancy shopping).

To the Anchorage backers of the Knik Arm Bridge: Tell me again why I should support your bridge project…?

The Monkey Trap

Have you ever heard of a monkey trap?

In Africa, enterprising individuals frequently trap monkeys for pets, for sale, or perhaps even for food. Through long years of watching and studying the behavior of monkeys, they learned a few things. One of these things is that monkeys are extremely selfish, and another is that monkeys are irrepressibly curious. By utilizing this little bit of insight, the African trapper devises a most ingenious but painless and humane trap to capture as many monkeys as he needs.

First, he makes a pot or jar with a small opening in one end, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand. After securing this pot to an immovable object, the trapper puts a few peanuts or other treats into the jar, then sits back to wait. When a monkey comes near the jar and smells the treat inside, it immediately inserts its hand through the hole to grasp the peanuts, fruit, or whatever tasty bait might be lurking inside.

But here is where the monkey’s selfishness comes in: When the monkey grabs the treat in its hand, the full hand is too big to come back out through the hole in the jar, and the monkey, who refuses to let the treats go, is trapped as surely as if it were dropped into a cage. No matter how desperately the monkey fights, jumps, squeals, somersaults, and wrestles with the jar, it remains securely attached to the jar via the peanuts in its fist. All the monkey needs to do is to release the bait and pull its hand back out of the hole and go free. But, obviously, the monkey’s selfishness wins every time, and the trapper can then come and collect his newest prize, simply by breaking the pot to release the monkey.

These days, the monkey with his fist in the jar is the Democrat party. As I watch the Democrats during this election cycle, I see more of them all the time who won’t let go of their talking points, their hatred of the President, their insistence that he “stole” the 2000 election, and what-have-you. The peanuts they choose to cling so desperately to are the war in Iraq, and whether or not he somehow “lied” to get our “approval” of the war in Iraq. Whatever it might be, the Democrats persist in trapping themselves by refusing to give up their favorite anti-Bush fantasies, their talking points, or their obssession with regaining political power in Washington D.C.

President Bush reminds me of the canny African trapper who made the jar with the hole just exactly big enough for the Democrat hand to fit. More than once, I’ve wondered if GWB doesn’t have a little notebook somewhere in his desk with two notations in it:

1. “When your enemy is busy making a fool of himself, just stand back and don’t get in his way.”

2. Never try to match wits with idiots.

Who Needs Her?

I noticed something lately. All of a sudden, dads aren’t such evil things on TV dramas. For instance, the dad on Sci-Fi’s new “Eureka” series is a U.S. Marshal, lately tapped for the job of Sheriff in a small Northwestern town called Eureka, which is home to all the Royal Smart People (really, all the geniuses the government could round up). They all live in the town and work in a super-super-secret place. They are always inventing neat, quirky stuff that throws the town into chaos until the new Sheriff can figure out what’s going on. At any rate, the new Sheriff is a divorced dad with a teenaged daughter who is “loving but rebellious.” Dad does a confused but creditable job of “being there” for her.

And, on the new “Shark” series, the main character is a divorced dad with a teenaged daughter. At work, dad is a curmudgeonly Prosecutor, demanding and passionate. At home, he is still trying to put things straight, since he has been designated as the “custodian” of his teenaged daughter, who appears more than able to see through any of his protective bluster. Am I seeing a pattern here?

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that girls NEED their dads. But they also need their moms. How hard would it have been for these shows to have cast loving, stay-home mothers for these girls? Of course, that would have cut into the “romantic” aspects of any future shows, since everybody knows that moms and dads never get romantic. It’s as if the creators of the shows can’t imagine a stay-home mother who is “fulfilled” in her chosen vocation.

And, where are the rebellious teenaged sons in all this? Not too long ago, the portrayal of a positive figure as father in a major network show would have been a no-no. Dads were OUT–the bumbling, ignorant, too-stupid-to-come-in-out-of-the-rain dad was the order of the day. The Berenstain Bears by Stanley and Janice Berenstain were early experts in portraying this stupid clod in their children’s books in the Sixties and Seventies. Is it any wonder that the kids who grew up reading that tripe can’t identify with a smart, strong, sensible, and loving father these days? And the teenaged sons in such stories were almost like surrogate dads to their younger siblings, presumably pushed into the role by having fathers who couldn’t fill the bill. Pushing a boy into a man’s role before he is ready is a cruel joke, at least. It’s hard enough to grow into a real man in today’s feminized world without having primary storybooks illustrate what a great idea it all is. And kicking dad out of the family picture was perceived as the only non-sexist thing to do. Who needed dad??

So, all of a sudden, in the television dramas, the dads are back in the picture in the “positive” spotlight, but the loving, stay-home mom is kaput. No sign of mother anywhere. Just a scheming, bitter divorced ex-wife who wants nothing but the total ruin of the former love of her life. No wonder the kids wind up with their dads. Now, instead of “Who needs dad?” the question appears to be, “Who needs a mom who’s home all the time??”

But the kind of mother who would be a positive figure on these shows is a real threat to the feminist order, even more of a threat than a strong and intelligent father. Stay-home mothers are not to be tolerated, because they provide nurturing and dispense sensible, “real feminine” advice, and give their sons a pattern to use when choosing the girls they fall in love with, and we cannot HAVE that, since it might accidentally restore the strength and caring that built the real foundation of real America.

Strong families with both parents in their proper roles and children who respect and obey them are the utter nemesis of the Socialist re-designers of the American dream. They don’t want families to be the main, basic building block of this culture. They want them fragmented and unable to communicate with each other in any meaningful way. They prefer a shattered family to a unified one, simply because it is easier to propagandize someone who is unsure, sad, or confused about their relationships and their positions in society.

A mom who is at home when her kids get home from school is one of the best-kept secrets of the strength of American freedom. It makes kids feel secure in their lives and gives dads a way to get through their day without worrying about how things are going at home, which could undercut job performance and a father’s ability to provide.

Of course, this might sound something like a Pollyanna-ish outlook. But anyone who reads this who was raised in an “intact” family will know what I’m talking about. And anyone who has an intact family of their own is doing it right. Some things are just much better if we don’t keep trying to “improve” them.

Take A Look At This…

Michelle Malkin, never one for beating around the bush, has done it again. This is so good I’m not even going to comment…

Hell In A Nutshell

Hell. How did “hell” become a curse word? It’s the name of a place, isn’t it? How did it become something polite people won’t say? (well, wouldn’t say, in the good old days…)

Throughout Judeo-Christian history, the concept of Hell has been a part of the belief system, even though there have always been factions of some kind whose belief did not include life (or death) after death. But Jesus mentioned eternal punishment on several occasions. I would say that it’s safe to take His word for it, since He is the real authority on Eternal Life.

A lot of people these days believe there can be no Hell because God is a loving God. “How can a loving God send people to Hell?” is the usual simplified question regarding the nether destination.

My response to the question has always been this: “It’s true that God is a loving God, and that He loves each of us infinitely. But it is also true that part of His Nature is Justice. Humans who persist in evil behavior, who reject God and everything pertaining to Him, have made a choice. They have chosen “not-Heaven.” They haven’t been “sent” to Hell. They have deliberately CHOSEN Hell, and God has merely ratified their decision.

Ideally, we would all love God and desire to be with Him forever in Heaven. But life on earth is far from ideal, and there are lots and lots of people who not only don’t know God, they don’t want to know. There are lots of people on earth who will never even know He exists as Himself, but will believe in some other manifestation of a Creator. But God already has those bases covered, for Jesus also said, “In my Father’s house, there are many mansions.” We should take that to mean that He has made provisions for those who will never have the opportunity to understand Him as He is.

But Hell isn’t created for the ignorant or the simple. It is a special place for those who refuse God and His Grace. Being a “good person,” but deliberately repeating an action that is sinful isn’t going to be enough to keep one out of Hell. A “good person” is generally someone who doesn’t deliberately break the laws of the land, who dispenses charity generously, or who is kind and helpful. But if this kindly and generous person persists in, say, a sexual sin, it is going to cancel out some “merit” that might have been possible as a result of the other “good” things the individual is known for.

As humans, we know nothing about Heaven or Hell. It has not been given to us to know with our mortal senses. The only information we have about these destinations is what we have been given through supernatural sources. If you, as a “good” person do not believe anything supernatural is valid, then your choice is made, unless you are convincingly informed by one who does believe. These folks are generally called “missionaries,” but can just be friends who live out a Godly life in such a way that even an unbelieving materialist can’t help noticing, or being envious of.

Just because something is of a supernatural nature does not mean it doesn’t or can’t exist. It just means that our own physical senses cannot detect it in a tangible way. This is enough for most unbelievers. They are statisfied with only those things which they can perceive on a physical plane. Most belivers, however, are not satisfied with only material explanations, and believe that, although we don’t know for sure and only have the personal experience of another to provide us with what we need to know about a given belief, we are willing to accept those experiences as valid.

Hell is something nobody wants to think about, as a rule. For most of us, just making sure we stay out of there is enough motivation to keep us behaving correctly. We avoid breaking laws, we try to be kind, helpful, and generous, and we try to avoid the company of people who would destroy any of these “decent” actions.

Hell is as real as anything else I can think of, including Heaven. It’s real enough to me that I want to avoid it at all costs. Whenever anyone asks me what I really want, my reply is simple: “I just want to make it to Heaven.” I don’t care if I’m just a little tile in the far corner of the girls’ lavatory, just so I’m there.

Sharing one’s faith is always problematic, since there are always going to be those who will either resent what you are trying to say, or will ridicule your beliefs. Either way, it boils down to a simple case of belief. If, as I tell atheists, they are right, and I am wrong about all I believe, then, when I die, NOTHING will happen. Simply nothing. If there’s nothing after death, then NOTHING will be what we get. But…If I am right, and the atheist is wrong, then, when he dies, a lot of very interesting things are going to be happening, and I don’t think he will like them very much. He can always say, “But…but…!! I didn’t KNOW!” But he always had the opportunity and chance after chance to find out for sure, which isn’t the case for those who never have the opportunity to learn about God.

One thing we do know for sure about Heaven and Hell, and that’s that God is the final Judge. If our life was lived in a way that reflected our repeated choosing of evil, then God will only be able to point to the chute that leads to Hell. If, on the other hand, our lives were spent in a constant quest to discover more about Him, to find ways to love Him through our love for others, then God, as Judge, will be only too happy to welcome us Home. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant…”