Whatever you think of President Trump’s accomplishments in the first nine months of his second term, you have to agree that they are significant, and that he can be a strong force for change. But he will soon be a lame duck, unable to run again. And he will then be on the path to Elder Statesman status, while others maneuver either to extend or to undo his legacy. I’d therefore like to give President Trump a personal challenge. Mr. President, Please shift your focus from righting recent...
September 10th has now taken its place with September 11th and December 7th as dates we will always remember, because on those dates our nation was attacked and then tested. The cowardly assassination of Charlie Kirk is, I believe, a watershed moment. I was praying about what to say or to write when no words seemed adequate. Then, as sometimes happens, a regular reader wrote a note to me and said, “I think what we are seeing is bigger than Trump or MAGA or Democrat vs Republican. It’s bigger...
In the summer I try to write at least one post on the lighter side, so this month I want to share with you a short chapter in my longer journey to create audio versions of my novels and short stories. To turn a 400 page novel like On The Edge into an audiobook by using an experienced human narrator could easily cost $10K or more, which I simply don’t have right now to invest for that purpose. A couple of years ago I used an early version of GooglePlay to create a computer-read audio version of...
This month’s post is on a probably unexpected but in my view important subject: The many advantages of Natural Burial. I owe a debt to Colonel Jim Harper of Men’s Fraternity for planting the seeds on this subject many years ago. And I am excited that a Christian conference center in western North Carolina which we’ve attended for decades is about to open a large, wooded area for this purpose—there is already a long waiting list. And this is the rare subject today on which traditional...
I had lunch with a good friend this week, and we lamented the demonization today of almost every public figure by some group or other public figure. Since I’ve written two novels about demons and spiritual warfare, with the second, Nation On The Edge, set in Washington, D.C. with demons lying to our country’s leaders, and since I also tend to succumb to the temptation to disparage those with whom I don’t agree on policies, I thought I better write this post to myself, as much as to others. I...
Over the past few weeks I’ve run into the term “Inclusive Christianity” on several occasions, and in each case the speaker celebrated its wisdom and virtues. I have to ask: Is this phrase a buzzword, a term of art, or a new theological construct? As if God’s greatest free gift to all of humankind needs a modifier to denote its universality. And does it imply that there is another kind of less-desirable “Exclusive Christianity," as where the New Testament declares repeatedly the foundational...
Think of this post as an attempt to look about a month into the future. I’m writing this on Monday, April 7th, as the stock market continues to plunge following the announcement of Trump’s sweeping tariffs late last week. As will be obvious to a regular reader of this space, I don’t like tariffs, except to accomplish specific results when a country or industry is egregiously targeting the U.S. with their own unfair tariffs, domestic subsidies, or trade restrictions. Or there is a strategically...
Given my personal history with the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine, starting in 1969 as a graduate student and then ministry in Kyiv in 1991 and running real estate offices in both capital cities in the exciting days of 1991-2013, I am often asked what we should now do to end this terrible war. Since the Russian invasion in February, 2022, I’ve written three posts about the war. I just re-read all of them, and I would not change a word. The most relevant one right now is my November, 2022...
I’m sure that Elon Musk is smart. More importantly, President Trump thinks Elon is smart and apparently listens to him. I’m therefore addressing this post to Mr. Musk in hopes that he can convince the President that he’s about to make terrible mistakes on international trade that will almost certainly undermine, undo, and negate whatever positive impacts his other policies might have on our economy. Perhaps even turn his promised Golden Age into a stagnant mess. Implementing tariffs will...
I don’ know about you, but I’m both cautiously optimistic and nearly exhausted by recent events here in our country. And about the last thing we need is another opinion piece on this or that, so I’ll keep this brief. All I ever want is the truth. I believe that for quite a while now, particularly the last twelve years, we’ve been told a lot of lies or at best half-truths by powerful groups and individuals in and around our government, and these excesses led to some really bad policies. On a...
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