The Internet tells me that warnings started appearing on tobacco products in 1966. I smoked until 1976 and I don’t remember them. They weren’t called Black Box Warnings till 1979 and then it might have started with some prescription drugs. Well, in my mind the Smartphone should come with one. Continue reading
At least it was new to me, when the Israeli’s rigged the phones of Hamas to explode. Turned out they’ve been there and done that thirty years ago! Sixty years ago, 1962, the U.S. proved they could parachute a two man team in a HALO jump into foreign territory, set up a 98 pound nuclear weapon in minutes, and exfil them successfully. These are both recorded in the 2019 book by Annie Jacobson, Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operations and Assassins. Continue reading
Harper’s Magazine’s cover blared: “Round Two: Trump’s Futile War Against the Deep State”. Before even reading it, I was struck that this liberal publication would admit the existence of the Deep State. It seems it wasn’t till Hillary Clinton, a liberal of liberals, said that her husband’s problems in office – I will be discreet here – were due to a “vast rightwing conspiracy” that it became acceptable to even think of political machinations going on deep within the state. Continue reading
That’s what a member asked me years before while still in the parish. I asked a question about my house, and he responded, “That depends. Is it your body bag house?” This needs no explanation, does it? You know what he means. The house you expect to die in. Well, we have one now. Continue reading
It is possible to go so overboard about “faith” about believing – like Pentecostals do, some Baptists do, and some Lutherans too, then you end up having faith in faith, worshipping faith. The same is true of liturgy. You can go so overboard about liturgics that you worship worship. Can you so overboard about the Bible that you worship it? Would that necessarily be wrong? Continue reading
That is the subject of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod president Matthew Harrison’s fund appeal of March 9, 2026. you may ask why I who haven’t been a member of the LCMS for 7 years would even know about this letter? Because the ever inept LCMS bureaucracy sent me the letter. Continue reading
Christians may differ, radical Republicans on the right and noodle-headed Liberals on the left, notwithstanding about birthright citizenship. They can have honest disagreements – without compromising their confession, Scripture, or America. You may disagree with the 14th Amendment being used to establish the so-called anchor baby policy which leads to a lot more people gaining citizenship than just the one born here. You may agree with the 14th Amendment’s intent to protect those born here regardless of their race or whether their parents are citizens. But to paraphrase the famous words of Seinfeld’s Poppie’s: “Birthright membership is absolutely wrong; about this there can be no debate.” Continue reading
Last year, I admitted to a young woman who asked me, “Should we really be celebrating the Fourth of the July where people rebelled against legitimate rulers?”, that for years I had planed my vacation so as not to have to preach on or about the Fourth. I told her that I had once preached a sermon based on the “hymn” written for all those women living in sin and think they’re heading for marriage. “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad”. The chorus tells the sad tale: Continue reading
