Sucktitude + Dad Orders Pizza + Mueller + Emotional Support Dog

Us vs Them

The left looks at the right and sees small things that seem big to them, and vice versa. Social media and the general suckitude of the times we live in make it even worse, because each side picks the dumbest, ugliest, or most extreme examples of “them” and says, “See, this is what they’re really like!” It’s an industry now.  --Jonah Goldberg, 7/27

Dept. of Shameless Joke-Stealing *

* courtesy of Reader's Digest, June 2019

• "I saw a documentary on how ships are kept together. Riveting!
• "I told you I'll be there in five minutes. Stop calling me every half hour!
• "A few weeks ago, my dad decided he was going to order pizza from his iPad. He's almost finished."

Trending *

* courtesy of The Babylon Bee 

• "Mueller reminds Congress report doesn't exonerate Trump from assassination of President Lincoln
• "Report:  More unborn babies in New York identifying as convicted criminals so they can't legally be executed
• "'I'm still sharp as a tack,' insists Mueller moments before taking phone call on a banana"

Monday Whimsey *

* courtesy of The Drudge Report

• "Emotional support dog bites flight attendant (7/25)
• "More older couples stay together--because they live apart" (7/29)

Whimsical Wednesday

Retirement

Lois has commented that July 4 used to feel like the end-of-the-summer. From that point on, thoughts turned increasingly to the start of the new school year. This year she experienced no such thoughts.

Road Trips

Last SAT 7/20, we returned from our week at David & Carmen's chalet on Little Island Lake, located near Park Rapids, MN. On the last pontoon ride around the lake on FRI, we saw a bald eagle, perched on a tree on the island.

Our next road trip begins on TUE 7/30. Lois will be at Sister Bash, which this years is hosted by her older sister Wanda at Lake Tahoe. I will be at our favorite KOA, next to the Badlands.

Food for Thought

• Spicy diet linked to dementia  Drudge Report 7/24
• Paleo tied to heart disease  ditto

There Is No Place Like . . . Texas

• Man rides electric scooter on Dallas highway during rush hour  ditto

Nebraska

"Study ranks Nebraska a best state for retirement. The perfect place to retire varies from person to person, but Nebraska is the best state for retirement overall, earning top rankings for both affordability & wellness, according to a new Bankrate study.  --Omaha World Herald 7/11

Christ Alone

We are easily broken over the pain and suffering we see around us, and well we should. But what a day of rejoicing it is when our hearts are broken by the sweet bitterness of seeing that suffering and our own sinfulness against the blinding purity of the Son of God; when our fists begin to loosen our grip on the stones we would self-righteously cast at others, and when we finally approach God, not as his advisors, but as sinners in need of mercy and forgiveness! When the intent is right and the mirror is the Word of God in flesh and historical context, the revelation that true beauty lies in Christ alone will only drive us ever closer to the restoration of our own beauty in God. Such an encounter with our Creator is not to be found amidst the cacophony of noises within the factory of dedicated god-crafters; it is best seen when nothing obscures our view of the cross.  --J.M. Njoroge, Slice of Infinity

Political Potpourri

The only way to restore a common standard in politics is for both sides to rebuild trust, step by step. And that can only happen when both sides share common goals and values. Otherwise, everyone will decide that losing by abiding by the rules must take a back seat to victory by any means. And that means the destruction of our standards, one by one, until there are no standards left. --Ben Shapiro, Townhall 7/24

Extremism

Abortion extremism is the new normal for Democratic politicians. Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren was asked if she could think of any way abortion should be limited, and she said no. At least 12,000 late-term abortions take place yearly. But that's not enough for Democrats. --Betsy McCaughey, Townhall 7/24

Fairytales

The world in which most liberals live is one of magic and fairytales -- where socialist systems have starved millions of people and destroyed every economy forced into its model, but which certainly will work the next time. It is a world in which using fascist tactics to silence opponents actually makes you an anti-fascist; and where presidential candidates can promise everything for everyone, and still have enough money left over to cut taxes. In this fantasy land, anything is possible if you just feel it to be true. Perhaps nowhere is the Left’s disconnect from reality more acute than in its assault on the Second Amendment. Despite decades of gun control proposals debunked time and again, the same schemes and arguments regularly are recycled and repackaged. Democrats remain convinced that Americans are just waiting for permission to hand over their firearms and their God-given right to self-defense. After all, Democrats say, other countries are doing it, so why not us?

-- Bob Barr, Townhall 7/24

Mental Health Monday

Quiet Time

This morning during my quiet time I prayed LSB #756, "Why Should Cross & Trial Grieve Me." I was especially taken with stanza 3:  "God give me my days of gladness, And I will Trust Him still When He sends me sadness. God is good; His love attends me Day by Day, Come what may, Guides me & defends me."

G.O.M.E.R. *

* Grumpy Old Men & Their Elucidating Rants

Those who accuse DT of fascism have no idea what fascism means.

Highlights from Drudge *

* Courtesy of the Drudge Report 7/22

• Seagull snatches chihuahua from garden"

Trending *

* Courtesy of the Babylon Bee (babylonbee.com) 7/22

• Millennial Horrified As old Age Filter Shows Him Living On . His Own, Working Steady Job
• Man drowns As Politically Correct Passengers Struggle to Describe What Just Went Overboard
• Ocasio-Cortez Appears On 'The Price Is Right, Guesses Everything Is Free
• NASA Announces All-Female Remake Of Staged Moon Landings

Human Differences

Many can look at the world around them and despair over human differences that feel insurmountable. There is so much that can engender cynicism and a sense of futility. Yet, for those who would seek a different story, there is a house in which tearing down dividing walls that segregate human beings from each other and from God is the only appropriate response. Built upon the foundation that is Christ Jesus, this house has walls of restoration and renewal, forgiveness and reconciliation, generosity and grace, identity and belonging. No one is shut out and all may come in.

--Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity

Reparations

Reparations are an ethical disaster. Proceeding from a doctrine of collective guilt, they are the penalty for slavery and Jim Crow, sins of which few living Americans stand accused. An offense against common sense as well as morality, reparations would take from Bubba and give to Barack, never mind if the former is an insolvent methamphetamine addict or the latter a dweller in near-pharaonic splendor. That reparations are a hopeless cause, supported by only a quarter of Americans, makes them more of an affront to reason rather than less, for it illustrates the enthusiasm with which Democratic politicians will bang their heads against the wall in an attempt to purchase votes.

--Graham Hillard, National Review Online 7/22

Citizenship

America is not an idea or a collection of documents, but neither is it a closed ethnolinguistic set. It is a nation in which relations among the people and between the individual and the state are defined by the terms of citizenship.

--Kevin Williamson, ditto

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood has long sought to downplay its commitment to abortion, calling itself a health-care organization and spreading the lie that abortion is only 3 percent of its business, even as its clinics perform between one-third and half of all abortions in the U.S. annually.

--Alexandria DeSanctis, ditto

Violence Against the Unborn

I can remember, in my lefty days, thinking of myself as someone on the side of the weak against the strong, on the side of the oppressed and voiceless (an identity that has some self-valorizing in it, obviously). How can people who embrace that ideal so emphatically not see the violence against the unborn?

--Kathryn Jean Lopez, ditto

Road Trip + Body Differences + Racism & Sexism + New Study + Comfort Cows

• Today we travel to Little Island Lake, located near Nevis, MN, for a week @ David & Carmen's chalet. We always find this a very relaxing getaway. David & I do a lot of fishing; sadly, not much catching. And I suppose the girls will drag us to a flea market.
• Frankly, it's hard to get worked up about USA women's soccer. Undoubtedly their world championship is a feat to celebrate, but Megan Rapinoe's immature antics make it hard to appreciate. You'd think the World Cup was all about her.

Bodily Differences

As much as transgender activists insist otherwise, sex is a biological reality that carries with it a number of concrete practical effects. Policies that address those realities don’t exist to deny or affirm individuals’ self-identification. Having separate bathrooms and locker rooms for men and women — not to mention separate sports teams — is based on real bodily differences rather than on personal conceptions of “gender identity.” --Alexandra DeSanctis, National Review Online 7/12

Racism & Sexism

One of the glorious things about American culture is the idea that you’re supposed to take people as you find them. Obviously, as a nation and as individuals, Americans haven’t always lived up to this ideal, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile ideal in the first place.

The notion that all you need to know about a person is the color of their skin still strikes me as close to the definition of racism, whether you’re talking about black people or white people or people of some other hue. If you think you know what a woman is going to say before she says a word simply because you believe all women think a certain way, you’re a sexist. --Jonah Goldberg, NRO 7/12

It Is What It Is?

For anyone plagued by the signs of an inevitably despairing world, the story Jesus embodies affords us a language far beyond impotent coping mechanisms or naïve delusions that ‘we’ can save the world. Rather, we unite ourselves with one who has already set in motion the work of newcreation. Here, it is an inherently Christian task to actively work at unthinking the inevitability of the way things are and to labor accordingly at changing them. Any reflection of truth or goodness or beauty, however abstract, if truly lived out by those who believe them, will ultimately address the concrete matters of life as well. For the Christian, this is a world where nothing merely unfortunately is what it is. Imagining other possibilities, working to unthink the divisions, deceptions, and frameworks that keep us bound to creation’s fall and not its redemption, we join the work of Father and Spirit. We join the Son who takes the abstractions of truth and beauty and declares concretely, “Behold, I make all things new.”  --Jill Carattini, Slice of Infinity


Trending *
* Courtesy of the Babylon Bee, 7/15

• Women's Soccer Team Sues to Overturn Unjust Law of Supply & Demand
• Shocking New Study Suggests Disagreeing with Gay, Trans People Not Same as Hating Them
• New Line of Patriarchal Thermostats Includes "Freeze All Women to Death" Button
• New Study Confirms All Your Opinions Are Correct

Criminal Minds

• "Driver cited for using 30-pack of beer as toddler's booster seat" Drudge Report, 7/13
• "Mom arrested with kids inside inflatable pool on car's roof" ditto

MON Whimsy

• "Move over therapy dogs. Hello therapy cows." Drudge, 7/12

Food for Thought

• "Study:  Eating nuts key to mental sharpness" Drudge, 7/13

Saturday Meditation

God on Display

Skeptics and critics of Christianity might still have well-reasoned arguments, and legitimate issues to raise with the faith (and with the faithful), but one thing that cannot be denied is that the God on display in the Bible is not afraid of our humanity, nor does that God shy away from using those who many might consider undesirable. It is this common humanity—on display in my own life so frequently—recorded in the narrative of Scripture that keeps me believing in its truth and relevance.

And if that weren’t all enough, Christianity proclaims a God who valued humanity so much that in Jesus God took on flesh, becoming human. He took on his own jar of clay and in so doing gifted all of humanity with immeasurable treasure.

--Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity 7/11

Was Jesus Tolerant?

The truth is that Jesus was infinitely more than “tolerant.” And so, rather than tolerate sinners, He died on the cross for us.That’s who Jesus is. That’s the one we follow and adore.

--Michael Brown, Townhall 7/11

Free-for-All Friday

News You Can Use

• "Parents hiring 'coaches' to help raise kids phone free" Drudge Report, 7/10

Teaching Our Youth

We're so focused on always making sure everyone is in a "safe space" that we're neglecting to teach our youth our history and what makes our country so amazing. We're neglecting to teach our youth the value of having relationships with other people, respecting our differences and understanding that we each have a right to our personal beliefs, even if we don't always see eye-to-eye. --Beth Baumann, Townhall 7/10

Stupid Controversy

There's a lot of profit to be made, both politically and financially, in generating and maintaining stupid controversy. Perhaps that speaks to our national need for catharsis. But here's the thing about unjustifiable anger: It's never satiated. So watch for our controversies to get stupider and stupider -- and more and more profitable for those who egg them on. --Ben Shapiro, Townhall 7/10

Free Speech

We should reject any restriction on free speech. We might ask ourselves, "What's the true test of one's commitment to free speech?" It does not come when people permit others to say or publish ideas with which they agree. The true test of one's commitment to free speech comes when others are permitted to say and publish ideas they deem offensive. --Walter Williams, Townhall 7/10

Freedom

Freedom is not about being born into a perfect world. Freedom is about being born into a world where you have the power to fix things. --Star Parker, Townhall, 7/10

Theological Thursday

The Divine Service

 "Throughout the Divine Service, we may feel peace or anxiety, joy or sadness, excitement or boredom--or even all of the above! What we feel or don't feel, whoever, does not & cannot change the reality o what's happening. The Spirit is present among us, busily at work where He has promised to be:  in the Word, in the Sacrament, wherever two or three are gathered in Christ's name (Matt. 18:20) By His grace, we leave the sanctuary resting in the peace of God, with His Word in our heads & His love in our hearts, equipped & ready to do the good works He has prepared for us.
--Curtis Giese, The Lutheran Witness May 2019

Jars of Clay

In dealing with skeptics, there might be the temptation to overlook the humanity in the Bible. Perhaps it causes embarrassment, or creates fear that Christianity somehow doesn’t ‘work’ in transforming lives. I don’t see it that way at all. In fact, time and again when I have struggled with doubts in my faith, I am reminded of all the human individuals used by God as witnesses to the greatness of God’s love and redemption. It is one of the first things I point out in proclaiming the trustworthiness and faithfulness of the Biblical record, and indeed of Christian faith. For, unlike any other sacred text, as lofty and as grand as their epics might be, or as poetic and beautiful as their text reads, they do not show the full portrait of humanity on display as the Bible does; their heroes are not broken, but elevated humans and demi-gods.

So it seems worth asking: What kind of God, indeed what kind of religion, takes fallen and broken human beings and includes them in the plan of salvation? As the apostle Paul proclaimed of his own ministry; “for God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness, made the light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:6-7).

-- Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity

Thought for Today + Headlines + Trump + Immigration + Career Politicians

A New Frame of Reference

Jesus calls those who will see to see, and sometimes it is a call for a different way of thinking. Other times it demands an entirely new frame of reference. But he is always calling. For who God is in our minds must always be shattered by who God is.               --Jill Carattini, Slice of Infinity 7/9

Today's Headlines *

* Courtest of babylonbee.com

• Trump Declares New Holiday:  Tanksgiving
• God Still Trying To Shake Some Sense Into CA
• Nike Executives Stop Breathing After Kaepernick Points Out That Racists In 18th Century Also Breathed
• Hillary Proposes Reparations To Anyone Who Ever Lost A Presidential Election To Trump
• Christian Pharmaceutical Company Offers New Drug To Stop Swearing:  Darnitol

Why Trump?

I do not regret voting for Donald Trump, even though I found many of his behaviors & attitudes distasteful. The alternative was a vote for a corrupt politician, part of a corrupt legacy. HC represented, & still represents, everything wrong about the progressive, i.e., liberal, political movement. I quote:

"Trump’s performance on the big issues — the issues of peace, justice, and the American way — has been astonishingly strong. He has, as of this writing, held firm in his support for the right to life, in his pledge to nominate conservative judges, in his aversion to discretionary wars, and in his commitment to lower taxes and looser regulations. It’s all good."                                                         --Neal B. Freeman, National Review Online, 7/9

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Immigration & Hypocrisy

" . . . if Ocasio-Cortez is worried about maltreatment, illness, and hunger of the poor, she would find a half-million in dire need on the streets of America’s major cities, almost all of which are currently controlled by progressive mayors and city councils, whose zoning and gentrification and green regulatory polices ensure an absence of low-cost housing.

"To walk in the downtown areas of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, or San Jose is to witness many of California’s 130,000 homeless living on the sidewalks and streets among fifth, refuse, feces, needles, lice, fleas, and rats — history’s traditional ingredients for plague and death, with our era’s addition of drug paraphernalia. Juxtaposed to these medieval scenes are soap-box lectures about caring, intoned by progressive elites such as Mark Zuckerberg, Gavin Newsome, and Nancy Pelosi, who live in splendor in Bay Area keeps, their private neighborhood security details ensuring that their constituent peasantry keep their trash, illnesses, and defecation lower down the hill and outside the walls."               --Victor Davis Hanson, NRO 7/9

Career Politicians

"The Founders never intended politics to become a career. They were farmers, lawyers, businesspeople, and average citizens who saw service to their country as a duty and a privilege, not a lifestyle. Most returned home to their real jobs after serving the nation for a brief time. Many of today's politicians serve for decades with no real connection to the people they were elected to serve.

Instead of clashes between parties whose interests do not promote the general welfare but instead appear mostly self-serving, candidates should debate which ideas have a proven track record of working, no matter their party of origin."                                         --Cal Thomas, Townhall 7/9

Light + Quiet Time + Mental Health

Light

It is not by accident that the Gospel of John hearkens back to the chaos of the primordial creation: "In the beginning was the Word...In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters...All things came into being by Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of all people."(4) John's gospel presents Jesus as the one who brings order from chaos, light from darkness, just like God's action at the original creation. Out of what was formless and void order and meaning come forth. The light that comes does not simply banish the darkness; it is re-worked and re-ordered by the light. Light transforms the darkness . . .

Could God take the chaos and destruction we often see in our world and transform it with our deceptively simple, seemingly small acts of creative engagement? For those who follow Jesus, that kind of engagement with the destructive forces of the world gives witness to the reality of Jesus Christ, the Creator of life, light, goodness, and love. For the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.   --Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity

Quiet Time

I have come to highly value my daily "quiet time." First thing in the morning, after I make our coffee, I spend about an hour in scripture, devotion, & prayer. It centers me. The devotionals I'm using this day include Day by Day in Genesis, Daily Strength for Men, Men's Devotional Bible, The Word of the Lord Grows, & Slice of Infinity.

Mental Health

This week I'm undergoing some neuro-psych testing. I had suggested to my nurse practitioner that some of my symptoms might be attributed to medication. She recommended testing before making any adjustments. I have to say that I'm not entirely sold on this approach. I underwent such testing a few years ago. The results? It confirmed my clinical depression & general anxiety disorders; also indicated mild symptoms of OCD & bipolar. Anyway, I'm not looking forward to this testing, but I will endure it & make the most of it.

Freedom + Guidance

Freedom

"And while deploring the restriction or oppression of human freedom as evidenced in totalitarian regimes and systems, might it also be prudent to deplore the unchecked, unthinking, and often self-centered understanding of freedom that occupies many Western societies and systems. We are called to freedom, freedom for others–and not simply as the individualistic pursuit of self-interest. Rightly understood, freedom is grounded in love for the sake of one another."  --Margaret Manning, Slice of Infinity

Guidance

"Many decisions confront us where we cannot easily discern the best choice. Christians need not seek a special message or revelation from the Spirit where He does not promise to be. Given a palate of possible appropriate choices, Christians are free to use their God-given wisdom as informed by Scripture to choose responsibly from among them. There may not always be a single God-pleasing option.We can rest in the assurance that God can use for good in any station in life as we apply our God-given abilities & wisdom to serve our neighbor, family & others. Although we cannot be certain of specific guidance from the Spirit, we can be confident of the Spirit's general guidance when He produces His fruit in us:  "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control' (Gal. 5:22-23)  --Curtis Giese, The Lutheran Witness, May 2019

Goldberg + Climate Change + Solar Power

Goldberg

The guy who yells at someone wearing a MAGA hat isn’t a brave freedom fighter; he’s a paranoid witch hunter who wants to claim bravery on the cheap, as are the cowards who want to “fight fascism” in the streets of Portland just so long as you can’t see their faces. --Jonah Goldberg, 7/6

Climate Change

It’s time to challenge the steady diet of bias, false information and alarmism on climate change that students are fed in and outside of their classrooms. Science and public policy analyst Dr. David Wojick has launched an important new project to do exactly that. 

From kindergarten onward, our young people are repeatedly told that they, our wildlife and our planet face unprecedented cataclysms from manmade climate change, resulting from our fossil fuel use. The science is settled, they are constantly hoodwinked, and little or no discussion is allowed in classrooms. 

They thus hear virtually nothing about the growing gap between computer model predictions and satellite temperature measurements; questions about data manipulation by scientists advocating the dangerous manmade climate change narrative; the hundreds of scientists who do not agree with the supposed “consensus” on manmade climate chaos; or the absence of any real-world evidence to support claims of carbon dioxide-driven coral bleaching, species extinctions, or the seemingly endless litany of ever more absurd assertions that fossil fuel emissions are making sharks right-handed, arctic plants too tall, pigs skinnier and salmon unable to detect danger, to cite just a few crazy examples.  --Paul Driessen, Townhall 7/6

Solar Energy

The so called “craze” about renewable energy is a myth. The top users of fossil fuels are still actively generating power from fossil fuel and are also helping other countries to develop fossil fuel technology.
The major reasons for this are the high cost associated with installation and generating power, and the unreliable nature of the power generated.

The sun sends out abundant energy, yet solar energy can be generated only during the daytime, and any high-power consuming system must rely on other sources for energy during the night. The current industry-standard storage technologies are not sufficient to provide backup during the non-generational hours. 

Even during the daytime, solar energy cannot meet the demands of densely populated cities. Even worse, they consume a lot of space while generating proportionately less energy than fossil fuels or nuclear. 

When it comes to real estate, solar energy is the worst. Nuclear and fossil fuel plants generate the same energy by consuming only a fraction of space that solar consumes.       --Vijay Jayaraj, Townhall 7/6

Atheist Chick-fil-A + Gun Sanctuary + War on Iguanas + Rat Meat + Bumper Stickers

Free for All

• "New Atheist Chick-fil-A Competitor Only Open on Sundays Babylon Bee, 7/4
• "Humans pick partners with similar smell." Drudge Report 7/2
• "Cockroaches evolving to point where they'll be nearly impossible to kill." ditto
• "Half of dog owners turn to canines over family for emotional support." ditto
• Mad Magazine to cease publication" Drudge 7/4

There Is No Place Like . . . 

California

• "CA town declares elf- sanctuary--for gun owner"  Drudge 7/3

Florida

• "FL declares war on iguanas; urges residents to kill them" ditto

Criminal Minds

• "Boyfriend arrested after girlfriends pelted with mcDonald's dipping sauce. ditto
• "Real life Hamburglar cooks himself dinner after breaking into Wendy's". ditto

Food for Thought

• "Rat meat seized by custom agents at O'Hare". Drudge 7/3

Dept. of Shameless Joke-Stealing *

*courtesy of Reader's Digest June 2019

"Vacation Bible School is a phrase that gets less exciting for kids as each word is introduced."

Bumper Stickers *

* courtesy of National Review Online 7/4

• Be nice to your kids. They'll choose your nursing home.
• I bet Jesus would have used His turn signals
• If history repeats itself, I'm so getting a dinosaur
• If you can read this I'm not impressed. Most people can read.

Political Potpourri

Nike is doing it wrong. I don't mean the shoemaking, though that thing with Zion Williamson was pretty bad, I have to say. No, Nike is doing it wrong because it managed to do something that all the neo-Nazis, Klansmen, alt-righters and other denizens of the lowest coprophagic phylum of our political life could never do: It turned the Betsy Ross flag into a racist symbol.
--Jonah Goldberg, Townhall 7/4

Thought for Today

Yet in this drama of God in flesh, we are given nothing less than one to walk beside us on the harder road–one with the worth of the world in mind. Born of a peasant girl in a poor manger, Jesus became a human child, who would become a man, who would be put to death. It is strange to imagine a God who would concede to such a plan. God could have instead come down in glory and power for all to see, silencing crowds, forcing them to look. It would have proved that he was no mere human to look us eye to eye. And it would have made him a God to whom we could not say no, even if it was only to say yes out of fear or force. No instead, he was mindful of us; he became one of us. When we turn to him with nothing to give but love, we know why.

Christ’s is a declaration of human worth that makes every other seem empty, narcissistic, or fleeting at best. And it is worth expending everything to consider what his humanity has to say of our own. What are mere mortals that you should think of them, human beings that you should care for them?

--Jill Carattini, Slice of Infinity

Patriotism + Celebrating the 4th + A Prayer

Patriotism

America didn’t complete the project of freedom on that broiling day in Philly, but that’s like saying your kid’s first day of school is no big deal because your kids can’t do algebra yet. On July 4, 1776, we began setting up the greatest opportunity for human flourishing the world has ever known, and our example continues to be the world’s beacon. The United States of America isn’t perfect. We’re merely the best.
--Kyle Smith, Drudge Report 7/4

There have been recurring elements. The fireworks and hotdogs. Family time. But there’s no prescribed way to celebrate July 4th. And that’s the best part of it. Thanksgiving is governed by family traditions. Christmas is governed by religious ones. New Years, at least for the young and single, is governed by the manic desire to find someone to kiss at midnight. July 4th is whatever you make of it.  National Review Online 7/4

Celebrating the 4th

July 4th commemorates a political event — the signing of the Declaration: a document full of ideological claims and a fair bit of rip-roaring propaganda. (Damn you King George, for allowing free worship for French-speaking Catholics in a neighboring territory!) But our July 4th celebrations are remarkably non-ideological.                                 --Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review Online 7/4

A bright blend of family, friends, picnics, and patriotism fills the summer air; red, white, and blue adorns every Main Street; parade floats roll by to the brassy tunes of the local marching band. Sparklers and firecrackers dazzle the kids in the backyard (no more Roman Candles after what happened last year) while the parents revel in happy hour all day long. Ah yes, Independence Day — a day for flipping some burgers, blasting some Lee Greenwood, and (of course) pouring on the bug spray for the evening fireworks show.                                     --Kayla Bartsch, NRO 7/4

I Love the 4th

Despite their flawed nature as human beings, our Founders laid out principles for forming a nation based on humanity’s highest ideals. Nowhere else on earth had that ever been done before. Those founding principles have guided this nation and created a framework that allows society to recognize the error of its ways.

The fact is, we abolished slavery. We even fought a war over it. We ultimately recognized women’s and minorities’ right to vote, to own property, and to have the full and equal rights of any other citizen. We have endeavored through our laws and our actions to eradicate the unequal treatment and marginalization of fellow Americans because of their ethnicity, religion, politics, or other characterized . . . 

I love America not only because we’ve grown to rectify many of our wrongs, but also because we’ve been an incredibly positive force for good. We’ve built a free and prosperous nation where anyone has the opportunity to thrive and live out their dreams. We’ve also shared that gift with the world, helping others to achieve the same . . . 

So, on this Independence Day, I encourage you to join me in watching fireworks, eating hot dogs and apple pie, proudly celebrating America, and continuing to work toward the vision of the nation our Founders thought we could be. Happy Independence Day!                                  --Kay Coles James, Townhall 7/4

A Prayer for Independence Day

O God, our help in ages past, our Hope for years to come, I give You grateful thanks on this anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence for the priceless blessings of liberty that with Your help were won for me by my ancestors. Stir up within me, I pray You, a new appreciation of the life liberty, & pursuit of happiness I enjoy in this land of the free, & a greater readiness to serve my nation with my talents. Teach me above all, to treasure that precious freedom of conscience & worship without which other liberties would not long survive. May I never contribute to the loss of these dearly won blessings by my own selfishness, ambition, or indifference.

Teach me furthermore, O Lord, that the enjoyment of freedom brings with it the responsibility to serve. To that end make me willing to respect the laws of my country, to serve my fellow citizens well in any office of trust to which I may be elected, to exercise faithfully my privilege to vote, & to give my loyal support to all public institutions.

Bless all those in authority. Give wisdom & faithfulness to those in positions of leadership.Preserve them from becoming the prey of selfish pressure groups, & give willingness to serve the interests of the public.

Grant enduring peace to our country & its institutions, so that Your Gospel may be able without hindrance to turn the hearts of all from the bondage of sin to the freedom won by the blood of our precious Redeemer, in whose name & for whose sake we ask this. Amen.                            --My Prayer Book