Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

ROYAL CHORAL SOCIETY -- HALLELUJAH CHORUS IN ISOLATION - 2020

The Royal Choral Society performed the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah virtually this Good Friday, continuing a Royal Albert Hall tradition that has been going for 144 years – broken only by the Blitz in 1940/1.

Following the cancellation of this year’s annual performance due to Covid-19, members formed a virtual choir to allow audiences everywhere to enjoy this Easter institution. The choir invited the public to join them in singing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ at 4:35pm (BST) on Good Friday 10 April 2020.

82 members of the Royal Choral Society filmed themselves singing in their own homes, and the videos were then stitched together, and shared as part of the Royal Albert Hall's #RoyalAlberHome series. Conductor Richard Cooke joined from his garden, with Richard Pearce – regular organist for the Last Night of the Proms – providing accompaniment.

AYAKO ISHIKAWA - "AMAZING GRACE"

I came across this last night and want to listen to it again and again.

PERSPECTIVE

From World Magazine:

"A PLACE IN THE CHOIR"

Time for some fun!  A friend sent me the following video which delighted me no end!  Enjoy!

 

This family rendition, with children participating, might inspire other families to join in the fun, too!

ALISTAIR BEGG - "THE GOD OF HOPE"

Alaister Begg is the pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio.  I thought this message delivered March 29, 2020 inspirational and timely.   May God fill us with His presence and hope during this challenging experience of the Coronavirus disease.   2.3 billion people are currently in lockdown across the world.  

 

ALMA DEUTSCHER - YOUNG PRODIGY PRODUCES BEAUTY TO TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY

   A couple days ago my attention was captured by a Wall Street Journal article highlighting the musical accomplishments of a young 15 year old musical prodigy, Alma Deutscher:   a piano sonata at 6, a piano concerto for violin and orchestra at 9, a full-length opera by 12 and a complete concert at Carnegie Hall last December (age 14) with herself as both violin and piano soloist.   I went online to see if I could find any videos.  Oh my!  For the next two hours I sat stunned, mesmerized, and enraptured as I listened to her performances and interviews. 

Before the concluding performance of her Carnegie Hall program, she explained to the audience the odd beginning of her "Siren Sounds Waltz" which transitions from the cacophony of Viennese traffic sirens into music utterly celestial.  Watch as she explains:

In case you didn't catch all she said in introducing the music, here is a partial transcript:

"Some people told me that nowadays melodies and beautiful harmonies are no longer acceptable in serious classical music. Because in the twenty-first century, music must reflect the ugliness of the modern world. Well, in this waltz, instead of trying to make my music artificially ugly in order to reflect the modern world,  I went in exactly the opposite direction! I took some ugly sounds from the modern world - and I tried to turn them into something more beautiful through music.

Following are a few additional videos:

WHY THIS NOBEL LAUREATE PREDICTS A QUICKER CORONAVIRUS RECOVERY: "WE'RE GOING TO BE FINE"

Joe Mozingo of the Los Angeles Times reports:

While many epidemiologists are warning of months, or even years, of massive social disruption and millions of deaths, Levitt says the data simply don't support such a dire scenario — especially in areas where reasonable social distancing measures are in place.

"What we need is to control the panic," he said. In the grand scheme, "we're going to be fine."

Michael Levitt, a Nobel laureate and Stanford biophysicist, began analyzing the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide in January and correctly calculated that China would get through the worst of its coronavirus outbreak long before many health experts had predicted.

Now he foresees a similar outcome in the United States and the rest of the world.  [More...]

** Note:  Worth reading is theologian Dr. Ron Sider's short article, "Finding Strength in a Time of  Pandemic"   It expounds beautifully the reality of Easter morning and its meaning for all believers.

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS CONTINUES WORLDWIDE

One could fill blog post after blog post with stomach-turning accounts of persecution of Christians.  Gary Lane of CBN News reports:

Transcript:   [Bolding is mine]   . . . Two thousand years after Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, Christians face more danger than ever before. Around the world, each day 260-million Christians suffer for their faith and the persecution is steadily getting worse. 2,983 Christians died for faith-related reasons last year and nearly 9,500 churches were attacked.

North Korea topped the Open Doors Watch List of worst offending countries. 

There are 60,000 Christians in labor camps for owning a bible and many of them died there," said Open Doors USA President and CEO David Curry.

THE PATH TO TOTALITARIAN AMERICA - WE ARE WELL ON THE WAY

Rod Dreher has been doing yeoman work tracing the conditions that gave rise to the totalitarian Communist and Nazi regimes.  He is studying the social and ideological conditions that incubated and fostered these movements.  In September Dreher will publish the results of his research in a new book, Live Not By Lies.  [Note:  Many will recall Dreher's 2018 book that stirred great interest, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation.]

In a current blog post, Dreher writes:  Last year, I spoke to a Soviet-born scholar who teaches in an American public university. . . .   This morning, she sent me this e-mail, which I reproduce here with her permission:  [my emphases]

I know from your blog that the work on your new book is going well and I’m glad because, boy, it’s so needed. I’m observing some disturbing developments on my campus, and we are really not one of those wokester schools for spoiled brats one normally associates with this kind of thing.

 

This academic year I’ve had an opportunity to work with some early-career academics. These are newly-minted PhDs that are in their first year on the tenure-track. What’s really scary is that they sincerely believe all the woke dogma. Older people – those in their forties, fifties or sixties – might parrot the woke mantras because it’s what everybody in academia does and you have to survive. But the younger generation actually believes it all. Transwomen are women, black students fail calculus because there are no calc profs who “look like them,” ‘whiteness’ is the most oppressive thing in the world, the US is the most evil country in history, anybody who votes Republican is a racist, everybody who goes to church is a bigot but the hijab is deeply liberating. I gently mocked some of this stuff (like we normally do among older academics), and two of the younger academics in the group I supervise actually cried. Because they believe all this so deeply, and I’d even say fanatically, that they couldn’t comprehend why I wasn’t taking it seriously.

 

The fanatical glimmer in their eyes really scared me.

AMERICA'S SHOCKING CORPORATE COLLUSION WITH CHINA

Tucker Carlson's report is shocking!   American greed and betrayal has enabled China's ascendancy, and  it continues! 

Excerpts from Carlson's monologue:

Carlson:  . . . China is no longer simply an economic rival of the United States. It’s becoming a dangerous enemy, but instead of protecting us from this threat, an existential one, our leadership class collaborates with the other side.

Why do they do that? Simple. They’re getting rich from it. This only became clear to many people a few months ago when the most American of all sports, professional basketball, a game literally invented in a gym in Springfield, Massachusetts ripped off the mask and showed the world who really controls the league.

NBA General Manager, Daryl Morey, you’ll remember wrote a tweet supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, and the resulting backlash, the NBA and Morey both apologized for daring to criticize China’s fascist regime.

And then LeBron James weighed in and explained to us that actually, freedom of speech in America is vastly overrated.

PRESIDENT TRUMP HONORS RUSH LIMBAUGH WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM

President Donald J. Trump awarded Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his State of the Union message on February 4, 2020.  As a long-time listener to Rush Limbaugh, I completely agree with John Nolte's tribute essay, Rush Limbaugh is Irreplaceable.

Along with so many others, I am deeply saddened by Rush's disclosure on Monday (2/3/20) that he is now dealing with advanced lung cancer.   I pray the Lord will heal and restore Rush in answer to the prayers of millions, mine among them.

Update: 2/8/20 - Rush reveals the back story to his invitation to the State of the Union and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom (with video)

ROD DREHER AND THE STATE OF OUR TIMES

It's important to keep reading Rod Dreher.  I do not have time to offer additional or better comments on the three posts listed below, but perhaps I can do so at a later time.  Each is important reading.

 --  Here is a post on Trump's evangelical support and it's pervasive pessimism -- which reflects my own thinking.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/evangelicals-trump-shield-2020/

--  See also this on the religion of the New York Times:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/new-york-times-editorial-staff-meeting-racism-oberlin-faculty-senate/

And this on progressive education in California - https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/california-to-become-yugoslavia-ethnic-studies/

THE CHARLOTTESVILLE LIE

A few moments ago I wrote the following to some friends:

The Leftist media willfully and maliciously lie.   That the "Charlottesville lie" keeps getting repeated (again today by Joe Biden!) is utterly disgusting and unconscionable.  Dante has a well-deserved circle in hell for shameless perpetrators of falsehoods such as this.

From the video:  "The scandal of Charlottesville is not what President Trump said about neo-Nazis, it is what the media said President Trump said about neo-Nazis."

- See also Dennis Prager, "America is Drowning in the Left's Lies About Trump."

Excerpt:

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, never said there were "fine" Nazis or Ku Klux Klansmen.

This is one of the two great lies of our time — the other being that all Trump supporters are racists — and perhaps in all of American history. I cannot think of a lie of such significance that was held as truth by so many Americans, by every leading politician of one of the two major political parties and disseminated by virtually the entire media.

The major news media need to understand these are important reasons that half of America considers them frauds. And we get no pleasure from this fact. The reason we don't recoil when the president labels the mainstream media "fake news" is that we know the charge is true. Has one major media news outlet yet apologized to the American people for preoccupying them for nearly two years with the lie of "Trump collusion" with Russia? Has one Democrat? Of course not. Because with regard to the Trump-Russia collusion issue, the news media were never driven by a pursuit of truth; they were driven by a pursuit of Trump.   [more . . .]

DENNIS PRAGER - THE LEFT RUINS EVERYTHING

Excellent video currently available on YouTube but in case it gets censored,  you can watch it on PragerU’s website

 

JOHN DI DOMENICO IMPERSONATES PRESIDENT TRUMP ON THE ERIC METAXAS SHOW

I thought John Di Domenico did an incredible  job impersonating Trump.  I don't know how Metaxas could keep a straight face.  Enjoy!   

 

SENTENCES ENCOUNTERED TODAY

--  “Abortion is never safe,” she said. “At least one person is guaranteed to die. The other is left wounded, at best.”

-- We live in a hollow culture. 

--  The non Christian world rather likes a non Christian Jesus. 

--  It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.

--  She often ushered the vulnerable into her doubts and championed wrong ideas.

TWO MINUTES ON THE MUELLER REPORT AND SOME PREDICTIONS

If your time is short, listen to the  2:52 - 4:32 segment of Joseph DiGenova's take on the Mueller report.

If you have a little more time, you will want to hear DiGenova boldly predict trouble ahead for the government conspirators against Trump.  I am sure a particular Trump-despising friend of mine will fume and fuss and maybe explode at the very thought that there could be trouble ahead, but that of course, would be to prejudge the future.   We must wait and see. 

Former CIA director John Brennan made numerous calamitous predictions that Trump would be found guilty of "Russian collusion" which kept the Left wing media excited, but which fizzled and bombed and thoroughly discredited Brennan as a commentator and prognosticator.  

Now former United States Attorney, District of Columbia, Joseph DiGenova has mounted the stage and has offered predictions of his own.  (Predictions begin around the 11:02 mark.)  Let's see what the future brings.  My bet is that his predictions concerning Brennan, Comey, Struck, and McCabe will turn out eerily accurate and come as a bombshell to the Leftist media.  And if it can be demonstrated, as DiGenova is convinced, that former President Barack Obama was in on the plot to discredit and remove Trump from the beginning, the Left wing media will need to crank up its spin machine to a level it has  never been cranked up to before.

Update 4/23/19:  I sent an email version of this blog post to a friend who replied affirmatively: 

Trump and his campaign WERE bugged by the FBI during the campaign. Based on standard procedures, this could not have been done without Obama’s knowledge. So it is fair to say that Obama was part of the plot, if not central to it. It was a concerted attempt by a sitting president and his justice department and FBI to prevent the election of Donald Trump and, after he was elected, to subvert and overthrow his presidency. That is the very definition of treason.

ON THE SUBJECT OF TRUMP'S LIES...

Sheryl Atkinson turns the tables on the media with her article, "50 Media Mistakes in the Trump Era: The Definitive List."   She writes:

We the media have “fact-checked” President Trump like we have fact-checked no other human being on the planet—and he’s certainly given us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and “lies.”

 

But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we’ve largely excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged reporting. The truth is, formerly well-respected, top news organizations are making repeat, unforced errors in numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago.

 

Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are “lies” when they are matters of opinion, or when the truth between conflicting sources is unknowable; taking Trump’s statements and events out of context; reporting secondhand accounts against Trump without attribution as if they’re established fact; relying on untruthful, conflicted sources; and presenting reporter opinions in news stories—without labeling them as opinions.

 

What’s worse, we defend ourselves by trying to convince the public that our mistakes are actually a virtue because we (sometimes) correct them. Or we blame Trump for why we’re getting so much wrong. It’s a little bit like a police officer taking someone to jail for DUI, then driving home drunk himself: he may be correct to arrest the suspect, but he should certainly know better than to commit the same violation.

 

So since nobody else has compiled an updated, extensive list of this kind, here are: 

 

50 Notable Mistakes and Missteps in Major Media Reporting on Donald Trump

1. Aug. 2016-Nov. 2016:

The New York Post published modeling photos of Trump’s wife Melania and reported they were taken in 1995. Various news outlets relied on that date to imply that Melania—an immigrant—had violated her visa status. But the media got the date wrong. Politico was among the news agencies that later issued a photo date correction.

 

 2. Oct. 1, 2016:

The New York Times and other media widely suggested or implied that Trump had not paid income taxes for 18 years. Later, tax return pages leaked to MSNBC ultimately showed that Trump actually paid a higher rate than Democrats Bernie Sanders and President Obama.    Keep reading . . . 

PAKISTANI WOMAN IMPRISONED 9 YEARS FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN

Shamefully, Asia Bibi remains in prison!  Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. writes: 

On Tuesday Asia Bibi will complete her ninth year of imprisonment for her Christian faith after being arrested for blasphemy in 2009 and sentenced to death by hanging in 2010.

In June 2009, Pakistani police arrested Asia Bibi on charges of blasphemy following complaints by Muslim women backed up by an Imam, who claimed she had insulted the prophet Muhammad.

The accusations followed on a row between Bibi and a group of Muslim coworkers. She had been harvesting berries in a field with a group of Muslim women who grew angry with her for drinking out of the same metal water bowl as them, insisting that as a Christian she was unclean.

From the outset Ms. Bibi has vehemently denied the charges of insulting the prophet. She claims that when her coworkers made derogatory statements about her faith, she merely answered: “I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Muhammad ever do to save mankind?”

In November 2010, Bibi received the death sentence by the lower court in Nanka district and four years later the Lahore High Court confirmed the verdict. She imprisoned in the Multan female prison.

Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) said last week that Bibi has been the victim of intense persecution for comparing Christ’s sacrifice with the prophet.

“She spoke about the wonderful sacrifice Christ made of his life for us and asked the simple question, ‘What has Muhammad done for you?’ For that, this torture, this beating, this isolation, attempts to assassinate her,” he said. 

TRUMP'S MEETING WITH KIM JONG-UN: A TURNING POINT OR A DEBACLE?

Time will tell.  Ben Shapiro devoted 30 minutes of his daily podcast to analyzing the meeting.   Like everyone, he hopes for the best but itemizes his disappointments and reservations.  Here Shapiro appeared on Fox & Friends (6/12/18) and expressed his concerns:

-- The editors at  National Review offer a sober, judicious commentary with which I am in total agreement.

-- Jonah Goldberg is skeptical and offers the quote of the day: " . . . There’s good reason to believe that if Kim were sincere about getting rid of his nukes, his own regime would kill him. The nuclear program is a unifying tool of state propaganda, celebrated and mythologized in grade schools and everywhere else in Korean society. Expecting them to get rid of them is like expecting the Hell’s Angels to forswear motorcycles in favor of minivans.

-- The Family Research Council rightly focuses on the issue of religious freedom -  President Trump: “We . . . brought it up very strongly.” This issue “did come up, and things will be happening,” the president continued, recognizing that Franklin Graham has focused on this issue and has “got it very close to his heart.” 

-- See the article "North Korea's Chamber of Horrors: Oppression, Slavery and Starvation."

A huge volume of prayer has been going up around the world regarding North Korea.  Let us continue praying.

SHOULD AMAZON TRIBES BE ALLOWED TO KILL THEIR OWN CHILDREN?

Short version -- Deadly Cultural Relativism: Leftists Oppose Laws Protecting Indigenous Children From Being Murdered

Full version below:

(Right:  photo of Marcia and Edson Suzuki with their adopted daughter Hakani.  See story below)

John Daniel Davidson writes in The Federalist: [my bolding]

A post at Get Religion caught my eye yesterday with the title, “Should Amazon tribes be allowed to kill their young? Foreign Policy editors aren’t sure.” It linked to a story in Foreign Policy magazine from April 9 about a handful of indigenous tribes in Brazil that engage in the ritual killing of infants and children—namely, those with a disability, twins, and the children of single mothers, all of whom are considered to be a bad omen—and the legal efforts underway to end the practice.

One would think that the answer to the question posed by the subtitle to the Foreign Policy article—“Should Brazil keep its Amazon tribes from taking the lives of their children?”—would be a resounding, “Yes.” Surely no one would argue these tribes have a right to kill unwanted children. Surely even the most committed multiculturalist would not condone such barbarity. Right?

But to assume that would be to underestimate the force of cultural relativism on the Left. If our friends on the Left encountered, in the present day and in real life, the ritual human sacrifices of the Aztecs or the fires of the Canaanite god Moloch, more than a few would insist that we not pass judgement on these indigenous cultural practices, and would probably denounce those who tried to do so as racists and imperialists.

WATCH: ISRAEL'S NETANYAHU OFFERS TO HELP PEOPLE SUFFERING IN IRAN'S DROUGHT

From the Daily Wire 6/11/18:

On Sunday, in an extraordinary message to the people of Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the severe water shortages in Iran and not only offered to help the Iranian people with words, but actions. He announced the creation of a Farsi webite that will show how Iranians can recycle their wastewater and Iranian farmers can save their crops and feed their families.

The Daily Wire again:

As The New York Times reported in January, at one point Iran suffered a drought for 14 consecutive years. The Times noted that after the 1979 revolution that brought the Iranian mullahs to power, the government urged farmers to plant wheat throughout the country, giving farmers inexpensive electricity and favorable prices, which stimulated more planting and the extraction of more and more groundwater. Claudia Sadoff, who created a report for the World Bank on Iran’s water crisis, stated, “25 percent of the total water that is withdrawn from aquifers, rivers and lakes exceeds the amount that can be replenished” by nature.

 The text of Netanyahu’s message follows::

NORTH KOREAN DICTATOR KIM JONG UN THE SAME HEIGHT AS PRESIDENT TRUMP?

The strange photo below was posted on Breitbart.  It strikes me as laughably distorted.  Kim Jong Un has been made to look as tall as President Trump.  See the video below for a true perspective of their relative heights.

 

 

 

HOME "FOR SALE" SIGNS COMING DOWN IN CONNECTICUT TOWN (VIDEO)

For sale signs a bit tacky?  Give the wrong impression of a town?  Unneeded because people search for homes online?  For all of the above reasons and more, the town of New Canaan, Connecticut is experimenting with a six month ban on "For Sale" signs in front of homes.

But I think the most important reason may be the following:

They don’t want people to know how many people are fleeing high tax areas like Connecticut. While Massachusettes may be the worst state in terms of raw state taxes, when you add up the total state and local tax burden for residents, it’s actually barely in the top ten of the worst. New York and Connecticut hold the top (or actually bottom) spots, with 12.7% and 12.6% of residents’ income being vacuumed up respectively. (Alaska, Wyoming and South Dakota are the least taxed by that standard in case you were curious.) This is no doubt a contributing factor to Connecticut’s place on the list of states where the most people are leaving. They come in fourth, trailing only Illinois, New Jersy and New York.

WHY IS IT THAT TRANSGENDER "GIRLS" ALWAYS WIN?

I think I know.   From the Daily Wire:

You wonder how the other runners may have felt.

On Monday, when Connecticut had its State Open track and field championships at Willow Brook Park, one person broke the State Open records for girls in both the 100 and 200-meter runs.

That person was a biological boy.

Terry Miller of Bulkeley, a transgender, won the events. In the 100 meter dash, the runner-up was Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell, also a transgender.

TWITTER CEO JACK DORSEY APOLOGIZES TO THE GAY CROWD FOR EATING AT A CHICK-FIL-A

I don't tweet.  If I did, I would seriously consider stopping using this service.  It's way too P.C. and far "Left" for my tastes. 

From the Daily Caller -

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Sunday expressed regret over eating at Chick-fil-A, because of the chicken company’s CEO’s personal views on gay marriage.

Dorsey tweeted a screenshot from his phone that showed a purchase he had made at Chick-fil-A using a mobile application. After a liberal backlash, however, Dorsey apologized for eating at the popular fast food restaurant.

At issue was Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s 2012 support for defining marriage as between a man and a woman, which he described as “the biblical definition of a family.”

Me:  This is so tiresome.  The new LGTQ fundamentalist religion calls for sinners to repent and anyone tempted to waver musst toe the line scrupulously to avoid being shamed and treated as an outcast. Corporations show craven compliance in a most disgusting way. 

-- I remember reading a few weeks ago this article: "Twitter is banning conservatives for posting facts." "... these bans come after users post 'hate facts' -- statements that are factually true, but politically inconvenient for progressives.

The most high-profile individual to be banned on this basis was Islam critic Tommy Robinson, who received a permanent ban from Twitter after he posted statistics showing that Muslims are vastly overrepresented in child grooming gangs in the U.K. Robinson is now taking Twitter to court to prove that “facts are now treated as hate.”

-- From a 5/3/18 post on this blog     -- Jamie Glazov suspended from Twitter for quoting  Islamic religious texts

Keep your eyes on twitter!  I am sadly confident we will read many more stories of Twitter censoring conservative views.

COCA-COLA ADVERTISEMENTS

These historical advertisements should warn us to be a tad skeptical about contemporary ads (of whatever sort...)

And not this from the "Cola Industry!"

 

UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES PRIZE PERKS; SHRINK FROM REFORM

Paul S. Levy - University Boardrooms Need Reform 

Writer Paul S. Levy resigned from serving as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania over Pen Law's treatment of law professor Amy Wax.  He received no support.   Levy writes:  Nobody in the university community has an incentive to speak out, and everyone seems afraid to do so.  Professors fear retaliation; students worry about social ostracism... 

Trustees and donors candidly admit in private that they do not want to jeopardize their children's chances for admission...  There's no incentive to rock the boat, and universities make sure they don't get much opportunity.  At the trustee level, the board is large and its formal meetings are entirely show and tell, with discussion severely limited and vote outcomes never in doubt.  Penn Law overseers do not vote on anything. 

Levy's conclusion: "When universities violate their values, trustees and overseers should resign, and donors should close their wallets.  Until that happens, nothing will change. 

Me:  Until students, professors and trustees develop a spine and convictions that overcome their self-regard for reputation and well being, universities will remain in the lamentable P.C. condition in which they currently wallow, a disgrace to founding documents and historic principles of intellectual debate.   

COMPARING THE GDP OF INDIVIDUAL U.S. STATES TO ENTIRE COUNTRIES!

The U.S. is an absolutely HUGE and productive country.  The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) produced the map below matching the economic output (Gross Domestic Product) of each US state with that of a comparable foreign country's GDP.   An intriguing commentary lies below the map.  [HT: econforecaster]

Read on for intriguing commentary from the AEI web posting:

It’s pretty difficult to even comprehend how ridiculously large the US economy is, and the map above helps put America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $19.4 trillion ($19,400,000,000,000) in 2017 into perspective by comparing the economic size (GDP) of individual US states to other country’s entire national output. For example:

1. America’s largest state economy is California, which produced $2.75 trillion of economic output in 2017, more than the United Kingdom’s GDP last year of $2.62 trillion. Consider this: California has a labor force of 19.3 million compared to the labor force in the UK of 33.8 million (World Bank data here). Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output last year as California! That’s a testament to the superior, world-class productivity of the American worker. Further, California as a separate country would have been the 5th largest economy in the world last year, ahead of the UK ($2.62 trillion), India ($2.61 trillion) and France ($2.58 trillion).

SOME NEWS ITEMS NOTED TODAY

Each of the following articles are well worth reading:

   -- Vice-President Mike Pence on Prayer in the White House

   -- Dr. Robert Epstein - Google has power to flip elections in a way that can't be traced

   -- Survey - 88% of Harvard Faculty say President Trump has done a very poor job in his first year and a quarter as President  

    -- Jamie Glazov suspended from Twitter for quoting  Islamic religious texts

   -- Islam in France: troubles Macron chooses to ignore 

Macron's Washington speech, as it happened, came only days after the release of the most comprehensive study yet of Islam in France. Co-sponsored by the Sorbonne, it concluded that the country's second- and third-generation Muslims, who make up seven or eight percent of its population, are increasingly Islamized. Most have no respect for French law and culture; most approve of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Researcher Olivier Galland said his results were, “to put it mildly, harrowing” – reflective of community values in stark contrast with those of "la belle Republique. "

SCHOOL IMPERIALISM: ORANGE COUNTY, CA. REFUSES TO ALLOW PARENTS TO OPT THEIR CHILDREN OUT OF LGBT INDOCTRINATION SESSIONS

I find this unbelievable. Parents of children in Orange County, CA have been refused permission to exempt their children from LGBT indoctrination classes.  Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council  writes:

It's every parent's worst nightmare: someone exposes your kids to something harmful -- and you can't stop them. That's exactly the situation in Orange County, California, where the school district has decided that LGBT lessons are too important to let families opt out.

In a story that almost has to be read to be believed, Fox News's Todd Starnes reprints the policy in black and white. "Parents who disagree with the instructional materials related to gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation may not excuse their children from this instruction," the memo from the Orange County Board of Education warns.

Todd couldn't believe his eyes, so he called a district spokesman who confirmed that kids would be forced to attend the schools' LGBT indoctrination sessions. Then, in what was supposed to offer some reassurance, he went on to say that while parents may have no authority over what their kids learn in class, they had the district's approval to rebut the materials at home. "Parents are free to advise their children that they disagree with some or all of the information presented in the instructional program and express their views on these subjects to their children." You mean you'll let us make the decisions when our kids are home? How thoughtful.

TOP 10 ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES RELATED TO THE BIBLE

Crossway publishers have published a list of the top 10 archaeological discoveries with a photo and short explanation of each.   The material comes from  the ESV Archaeology Study Bible edited by Dr. John Currid and Dr. David Chapman.  Click here for short explanations of each.

1) Rosetta Stone (1798)

2) Dead Sea Scrolls (1948)

3) Tel Dan Inscription (1993)

4) Ketif Hinnom Scrolls (1979)

5) Moabite Stone (1868)

6) Lachish Letters (1930s)

7) Epic of Gilgamesh (1872)

8) Hezekiah's Tunnel (1867)

9) Crucified Man at Givat Hamivtar (1968)

10) Ugaritic Texts (1929)

JONAH GOLDBERG'S NEW BOOK: "SUICIDE OF THE WEST: HOW THE REBIRTH OF TRIBALISM, POPULISM, NATIONALISM, AND IDENTITY POLITICS IS DESTROYING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY"

Update 6/11/18 - Ben Shapiro posted a major, one-hour video interview with Jonah Goldberg yesterday.

Original article:

Goldberg launched his new book, Suicide of the West, today.  Goldberg is a syndicated columnist and author (I thought his book Liberal Fascism extraordinary), Senior Editor of National Review, and weekly opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times.  Of his new book, Goldberg, not very modestly, writes:

The book has been called “epic and debate shifting” (David Brooks, NYT), “... ambitious, engrossing, and provocative ... splendid ...”  (Commentary), ... a “fascinating” book (Russ Roberts) that is  “... an important exploration of why we’re giving up the philosophy that built the modern West” (Ben Shapiro) that “will be one of the most important books of the year” (Stephen Hayes) ...

Goldberg writes further,

Anyway, if you’ve already bought it: thank you. If you plan on getting it, today is a good day for that kind of thing. If you want to hear or read more about it, you can hear me discuss it with Russ Roberts on EconTalk here, with Bill Kristol here, with John Miller here, or Matt Lewis here. I also talked to NPR’s Steve Inskeep about it yesterday. And here’s is the excerpt adapted from the introduction from the current issue of National Review. And here’s MBD’s thoughtful essay on it.

If you, like me, have creaking book shelves and find yourself short on time and money, it can be pleasurable to watch the interviews and read the excerpt Goldberg supplies.

THE EMP (ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE) THREAT TO AMERICA

Fox News report (see for VIDEO):  Dr. Peter Pry praised the Trump administration for placing more emphasis on preventing an attack on the U.S. electrical grid, telling Mark Levin that the policy is "night and day" from the Obama administration.   [The Obama administration refused to interview the
top expert on EMPs!]

Pry, executive director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum and author of "Blackout Wars,".. . . said the U.S. would be in "huge trouble" in the event of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, which would cause massive blackouts and threaten key infrastructure. 

Pry said he would grade President Trump with an A+ for his enhanced interest in the ongoing threat. 

"In his recent national security strategy, [Trump] was the first president to include EMP and protecting the electrical grid and other life-sustaining infrastructure from [attack]," he explained, adding there have been numerous meetings between the EMP commission and the National Security Council. 

My response:  Praise God (literally) that we have an administration that takes the EMP threat seriously.  Watch the video interview.  Some years ago I read William Forstchen's novel, One Second After, describing the event of an EMP attack.  I highly recommend the book.  

MIKE POMPEO NEEDS TO BE CONFIRMED AS SECRETARY OF STATE

Update:  4/26/18 -The Senate voted today to confirm CIA Director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state in a bipartisan 57-42 vote. 

(Original post):  Tony Perkins of The Family Research Council lays out the case for Pompeo's confirmation:

It would be difficult not to be impressed with a man who graduated at the top of his class at West Point, earned a degree from Harvard Law, built a successful business career, served his country -- and Congress. Even the most relentless of Democrats would have a tough time poking holes in a résumé like that. But on Thursday, when Mike Pompeo sits before the Senate and defends his qualifications to be the next Secretary of State, liberals will still try.

Of course, the Democrats' problem with Pompeo isn't his credentials -- it's his convictions. From his early days in the House to his job at the CIA, Mike's opponents know that he's never been easily intimidated. When it comes to protecting America's interests or the values he cares about, Pompeo -- like the president -- is fearless. He stands up for what's right, regardless which way the political winds are blowing. And Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), for one, thinks that's exactly what our nation needs. "...Director Pompeo is clear-eyed and hard-nosed about the threats we face, and he speaks in the direct, blunt manner of a man who has no time to waste when confronting those threats," he said.

WILL NEW U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO PUSH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ?

Tony Perkins at the Family Research Center thinks so.   [my bolding] 

. . .  But with the announcement by President Trump this morning that Tillerson is out and CIA Director Mike Pompeo is in, there is now hope for change at the agency that has few if any rivals in being at cross purposes with American values and principles.

When Rex Tillerson was first announced as the president's pick for Secretary of State, I communicated my concern privately and publicly. I said that the State Department needed a strong change agent like Trump, and there was no way based upon Tillerson's record that he would do enough to roll back the harmful cultural imperialism which had been pushed in the State Department during the Obama administration, and to restore our promotion of international religious freedom to where it should be. And under Tillerson's leadership, not much did change in these areas. Religious freedom and human rights for all continues to take a backseat to the LGBT agenda as LGBT-promoting acting ambassadors remain in place around the world and our tax dollars still go to non-government organizations (NGOs) aligned with groups like George Soros' Open Society and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Now that Tillerson is on his way out, and CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been tapped to take the helm, there is hope for the United States to once again lead the world toward the promotion of religious freedom and the protection of human rights. I believe Mike Pompeo is the agent of change the State Department needs, and he has the president's ear. He cares about religious freedom, and about restoring the United States to its historically-esteemed role of human rights defender -- not cultural imperialist. And with Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Brownback also in place, the United States is perhaps better poised than any other time in recent memory to significantly make inroads in promoting religious freedom worldwide.

NEW HYMNS THAT STRIKE A CHORD WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE - INCLUDING ME! #1

 "His Mercy is More" - Matt Boswell and Boyce College Choir

Words and music by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa

Lyrics and chords can be found here.   

Verse 1

What love could remember no wrongs we have done
Omniscient all knowing He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

Verse 2

What patience would wait as we constantly roam
What Father so tender is calling us home
He welcomes the weakest the vilest the poor
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

Verse 3

What riches of kindness He lavished on us
His blood was the payment His life was the cost
We stood 'neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

Chorus

Praise the Lord His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness new every morn
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

Copyright: 

2016 Messenger Hymns (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.), Love Your Enemies Publishing

Some supporting Scriptures - Hebrews 10: 17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” Daniel 9:9  The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; Psalm 103:12 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Micah 7:18-19 18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. 19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Ephesians 2:4 - 5 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

NICK FOLES, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES QUARTERBACK, GOING TO BE A PASTOR

I used to follow football avidly but much less so in recent years.  But this headline from Drudge caught my eye and the article that followed cheered me greatly.   It has generated within me much greater interest in the Superbowl than I had before.  

"I want to be a pastor in a high school," Foles said Thursday. "It's on my heart. I took a leap of faith last year and signed up to take classes at seminary. I wanted to continue to learn and challenge my faith. It's a challenge because you are writing papers that are biblically correct. You want to impact people's hearts."

Foles is part of a team that has a strong Christian brotherhood. MVP contender Carson Wentz has been outspoken about his faith and many players spend a lot of time together in prayer, studying the Bible and sharing devotionals.

Foles was one of the study leaders during his first stint in Philadelphia and has become a go-to source for younger guys. Left guard Stefen Wisniewksi also plans to become a pastor after his career ends.

"Guys like Nick and Wis can spit out scripture all day and it's awesome to take in that knowledge," said special teams ace Kamu Grugier-Hill.

Foles is passionate about helping students find their way and plans to use his experiences to inspire and encourage them. . . . 

 He was spectacular against Minnesota in the NFC championship, tossing four touchdown passes in a 38-7 win.

Foles - not Tom Brady - has the highest passer rating in postseason history for quarterbacks who've thrown at least 75 passes. Foles has completed 72 of 96 passes for 793 yards, with five touchdowns and no interceptions in three games for a 116.4 passer rating. . .   [more. . .]

Foles' quarterback career has been marked with a great deal of inconsistency.  I am hoping (and praying) that Sunday will prove a good day.

JARED KUSHNER'S EFFECTIVE MIDDLE EAST DIPLOMACY

Kushner's perspective and progress confounds older students of the Middle East.  He grasped certain truths quickly:

. . . First, he recognizes that Iran now matters more to the Arabs than Palestine. With Iran and Islamic militants threatening the survival of major Arab states, many Arab leaders have quietly decided to align with Israel—dialing down their interest in the Palestinian drama. . . . 

Second, Kushner realizes that younger Arab generation has a fundamentally different perspective from that of its elders. More than 60 percent of Arabs are too young to remember the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel, and many more regard them as ancient history. . . 

Kushner is trusted by key players.    [more . . .]

PBS BROADCASTS MYTHS AND FALSEHOODS ABOUT THE CRUSADES

I am grateful to Andrew Harrod for his critique of the PBS film "The Sultan and the Saint."   I especially appreciate the links he included to many additional articles which encourage further study.  Harrod writes:

The advertising for the new film” The Sultan and the Saint “suggests it presents revisionist history in line with the modernist ecumenical agenda,” wrote in 2016 Dr. Benjamin J. Vail (OFS), an American Secular Franciscan. The finished film, shown to this author and others last April, thoroughly vindicated Vail, and is now offering hackneyed Crusade myths to the public via PBS, which broadcast the film December 26 and now offers it for online viewing.

Focusing on the 1219 encounter between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan Al-Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade, the film reflects popular falsehoods about the Crusades accepted even by President Barack Obama. Ignoring reality, the PBS film website declares that the “film sheds light on the crusades origins of dehumanizing rhetoric towards non-Europeans and non-Christians” that “resulted in four generations of escalating conflict.” Falsely suggesting that current global hostilities involving Muslims result from insufficient dialogue, the website declares that the film “inspires solutions for the negative atmosphere we find ourselves in today.”

PBS’ online portrayal of Fifth Crusade historical figures is equally fallacious, such as in the statement that St. Francis wanted “to oppose the bloodshed of the Fifth Crusade.” Meanwhile, crusader commander John of Brienne has base motives in PBS’ description: “Like many who were motivated to join the Crusades, John might have thought he could improve his lot and gain land, nobility and fame in the Holy Land.” At the website of the film’s pro-Islam producer, Unity Productions Foundation (UPF), Cardiff University professor and film expert Helen Nicholson cynically states that “for these people, the Crusade is a gift from God.”

Nicholson appears in the film alongside journalist Paul Moses, author of The Saint and the Sultan:  The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace, and his prior statements clearly show his influence upon the film. In various 2013 book presentations, he presented Francis as a pacifist, as someone who “quietly opposed the Crusade,” and as someone who “never spoke in a disparaging way about Islam or Muslims.” By contrast, Francis’ era was a “time when the church had become corrupt and violent” and knew how to “cherry pick through scripture” in order to find “supposed Biblical grounds” for the Crusades.

MUSIC AND THE BRAIN AND HEALING

Lauren Neergard reports on something I think of universal interest:  "NIH Taps the Brain to find out how music heals."

Like a friendly Pied Piper, the violinist keeps up a toe-tapping beat as dancers weave through busy hospital hallways and into the chemotherapy unit, patients looking up in surprised delight. Upstairs, a cellist plays an Irish folk tune for a patient in intensive care.

Music increasingly is becoming a part of patient care — although it’s still pretty unusual to see roving performers captivating entire wards, like at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital one fall morning.

“It takes them away for just a few minutes to some other place where they don’t have to think about what’s going on,” said cellist Martha Vance after playing for a patient isolated to avoid spreading infection.

The challenge: Harnessing music to do more than comfort the sick. Now, moving beyond programs like Georgetown’s, the National Institutes of Health is bringing together musicians, music therapists and neuroscientists to tap into the brain’s circuitry and figure out how.

“The brain is able to compensate for other deficits sometimes by using music to communicate,” said NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, a geneticist who also plays a mean guitar.  

POPE JOHN PAUL II ON ISLAM

The other day I picked up Pope John Paul II's brief comments on Islam from Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 92-93.  I thought their succinctness and clarity worth recording.  Pope John Paul II writes:  (italics in the original)

"As a result of their monotheism, believers in Allah are particularly close to us. . . .

Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation.  It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son.  In Islam all the richness of God's self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside.

Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us.  Islam is not a religion of redemption.  There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection.  Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Muhammad.  There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent.  For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity. 

Nevertheless, the religiosity of Muslims deserves respect.  It is impossible not to admire, for example, their fidelity to prayer.  The image of believers in Allah who, without caring about time or place, fall to their knees and immerse themselves in prayer remains a model for all those who invoke the true God, in particular for those Christians who, having deserted their magnificent cathedrals, pray only a little or not at all." 

MODERN FEEDING OF THE 5,000

Chick-fil-A comes through -- and on a SUNDAY!  Breitbart article below.

Breitbart news:  Atlanta Chick-fil-A Earns Praise for Feeding Stranded Atlanta Airport Passengers. 

Thousands of passengers at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport found themselves stranded during a massive power outage over the weekend, but on Sunday a local Chick-fil-A surprised everyone by rolling in to feed the starving passengers.The world’s busiest airport ground to halt on Sunday, as a sudden power outage grounded more than 1,000 flights in Atlanta. While authorities insisted that no one was endangered by the outage, the ripple effect of the problem spread across the nation’s air transportation system. 

But the stranded passengers and busy airport workers weren’t left to starve. The fast food company reported serving over 5,000 people.  

Chick-fil-A is famously closed on Sundays, but the location’s workers jumped to their stations when the emergency befell the busy transportation hub. In turn, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed thanked Chick-fil-A owner Dan Cathy for his support, Atlanta’s WSB TV reported.

The company released a statement about their efforts to “serve a community in need.”

“The mayor called about 10pm and asked for assistance. We immediately mobilized staff and team members who live and work near the airport, and they are making sandwiches and delivering them to the EOC (emergency operations center). City and airport officials there are distributing sandwiches to passengers who are stranded due to the power outage. It has been a very difficult day for thousands of travelers, and while Chick-fil-A is always closed on Sunday, our restaurants open occasionally to serve communities in need. We do not make a profit, but do what we can to offer comfort to people experiencing hardship.”

WHAT TO READ? CLAREMONT OFFERS A FEAST OF SUGGESTIONS

In a special issue of The Claremont Review of Books dozens of noteworthy individuals offer suggested reading for the holidays.  Best of all, mini-reviews and explanations accompany almost all of the suggestions.  I find the list stretching (to put it mildly) and an enjoyable read in itself!  Below, to offer one example, I've posted Mary Eberstadt's suggestions.  (She has penned, by the way, an essay in the current "First Things" journal, "The Zealous Faith of Secularism: How the Sexual Revolution Became a Dogma.")

Once upon a time, as CRB readers know, soi-disant enlightened progressivism merely disdained religious believers and other traditionalists. Nowadays, it goes after them with spite and glee. Yet the force that to the slammer would drive the cake-baker—and others—now bears paradoxical fruit: it’s inadvertently inspiring some of the finest writing of the time. 2017 has been a banner year for books about faith, by writers of faith and otherwise.

For literary as well as spiritual pleasure, one new offering of interest to anyone who luxuriates in reading is George Weigel’s Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II. With settings as panoramic as those of a thriller, and anecdotes about some of the most fascinating figures and scenes of the twentieth century, it’s a moving, personal, melodically rendered memoir of the biographer’s times with the late great saint.

As others have noted in 2017, Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation is the religious book of the year. It’s also a modern pilgrim’s progress whose passion and sincerity stand as a tacit rebuke to secularist prejudice. Dreher’s truth-telling has achieved something rare these days: a respectful hearing outside the flock for a moral traditionalist.

Another essential new volume is Anthony Esolen’s Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture—an often plangent, and always crystalline, homage to civilization as it should be, unplugged from the distractions and delusions that diminish us.

Exodus: Jews Flee Paris Suburbs over Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism

Breitbart carries the following story:  

French-Jewish families are being forced from their homes in Paris suburbs as Europe continues to be convulsed by levels of anti-Semitism not seen since the end of the Second World War.

The Paris commuter newspaper 20 Minutes documents an “internal exodus” during 2017 of Jews from the Seine-Saint-Denis department, saying it is emblematic of broader concerns that French Jews, like their brothers and sisters across Europe, are finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile their faith with the changing demographics of the continent.  . . .

As Breitbart Jerusalem has reported, the experience of Jews in Paris is much the same across the rest of the country. More and more are feeling so unsafe that they now feel they have no other choice but to move to Israel for safety.

They are continuing a trend that has seen tens of thousands of Jews quit the country in the past decade.

More than 5,000 departures were recorded in 2016 on top of the record 7,900 who left in 2015 and 7,231 in 2014. In total, 40,000 French Jews have emigrated since 2006, according to figures cited by AFP.

On the evidence, that number will not be falling anytime soon.    [more. . . ]

MUSLIM IMMIGRATION IN PROCESS OF TRANSFORMING SWEDEN

Tucker Carlson talks with Mark Steyn about Muslim immigration to Europe.  In this case, Sweden.  (12/11/17)

Steyn:

Malmo was the first Christian city in what was then Denmark, and it's now going to be the first Muslim city in Sweden...  At twilight I walked from downtown Malmo to Rosengard, which is the big Muslim suburb, and the Swedish blondes thin out and the covered women and the bearded men come towards you, until eventually you are in a part of Sweden in which there are no uncovered women.  And in which Muslim women who come from countries where they didn't have to go covered such as Bosnia suddenly find they have to go covered when they immigrate to Sweden. 

That walk, as the blondes thin out and the big bearded men come towards you in ever greater numbers, that is Europe's future walking towards you.   It's the biggest story of our time, that Christendom is being transformed at an extraordinary level to the point where Swedes will be an ethnic minority in their own country by mid-century. . . .    

INTERVIEW WITH VETERAN MIDDLE EAST AMBASSADOR RYAN CROCKER

https://ricochet.com/podcast/q-and-a/man-middle-east/

I listened to this 43 minute interview last night and found it full of information and insight.  The Ricochet blurb introduces the Crocker interview this way:

Ryan Crocker is one of the outstanding U.S. diplomats of our time. In addition to his other posts, he was ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He has had some of the most challenging assignments on offer. George W. Bush, in the last days of his presidency, hung the Presidential Medal of Freedom around Crocker’s neck.

In this “Q&A,” Jay asks Crocker about the State Department today. Along with others, Crocker has sounded the alarm about cuts to the Foreign Service. He and Jay also take a tour of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, discussing matters past, present, and future.

One of the dismaying things I learned is that presently the U.S. has no Ambassador in Saudi Arabia!

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON SPEAKS ON "THE TWO CALIFORNIAS"

I fail many times to post items that I share with others via email, a mistake on my part.  When I sent the following video to a friend he said he found it insightful and learned a lot.  That caused pangs of guilt that I had not posted it on my blog when first I listened to it.

Victor Davis Hanson, a classics professor and public commentator on current events, talks about California being a combination of Massachusetts and Mississippi.  That situation cannot continue indefinitely.  Check out his talk below to see what he means.

BOLTON: TRUMP'S BOLD RECOGNITION OF JRUSALEM AS ISRAEL'S CAPITAL MARKS HIM AS A VERY DIFFERENT CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LEADER

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton declared President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was “exactly the right move to make.”  Following are quotes from an interview Bolton gave to Breitbart SeriusXM radio interviewer Raheem Kassam:  

“Israel is one of the very few, maybe the only country in the world where the American embassy is not in its capital city,” Bolton pointed out. “From the American point of view, let’s start with us, it only makes sense to put our embassy where the institutions of government are located, in the country to which our diplomats are accredited. If we found, for whatever reason we came across a European country we didn’t have an embassy in – a new country was created, for example – we wouldn’t put our embassy in a city 50 miles away from the capital.”

“Why Israel should be different than any other country in the world, no one has been able to explain. What Trump has done is not extraordinary. It simply conforms Israel to the other 190 or so countries that we have diplomatic relations with. It is, from an efficiency and an effectiveness point of view, good for the United States,” he said.

President Trump was very careful yesterday to say that that obviously the embassy is going to be in West Jerusalem, which nobody has ever claimed would go back to Palestinians under any conceivable settlement, so it doesn’t prejudice the final status of Jerusalem,” he noted.

 Bolton said recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel “breaks so many illusions that people have been holding.”  [bolding is mine]

JAY NORDLINGER INTERVIEWS VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON WORLD WAR II

There's hardly a commentator who I respect more than Victor Davis Hanson, the great Classics professor and military historian.  His latest book, published less than a month and a half ago, is The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. 

In introducing his podcast interview with VDH, Nordlinger says:

I take the opportunity to ask some fundamental questions: What if Hitler hadn’t declared war on us? Would we have gotten into the war — the European theater? What if Japan hadn’t attacked us? Could they have triumphed in the Pacific?

What were the causes of the war?

Was Hitler a little nuts — did that save our bacon? If he had been saner, could he have pulled it off?

How was FDR as wartime leader? And Truman? Were we right to drop the A-bomb(s)? What about Yalta? Was FDR, were we, guilty there? What about the Holocaust and the war? Could the Holocaust have been carried out without the war? Would it have?

Who are some unsung heroes of the war?

And more. Victor Davis Hanson knows the answers, I can tell you. Knows them cold. This podcast with him is both an education and a pleasure. Again, here.