Month: September 2017

On being that virtuous woman while singing like a Bee Gee, “Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive”.

Oxygen-Mask

Contemporary women commonly feel overwhelmed (covered over) with responsibilities to care for her family, manage the household, participate in community affairs and work a job away from home. All too often, all these things devolve into a condition we call ‘nervous breakdown’.

‘Nervous breakdown’, according to the Mayo Clinic, is an unhealthy response to stress.

I have good news and bad news. The good news? Stress motivates us to improve performance. The bad news? Long-term stress has a deleterious effect on your health.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) points to two actions that will relieve stress: relaxation and setting priorities.

Specific to women, instead of the yoga recommended by NIMH, I suggest starting your day by reading the Bible, meditating, and praying. Please understand the difference between a Bible study and reading the Bible. A Bible study increases your knowledge and a daily reading of the Bible will cleanse and sanctify you [Ephesians 5:25-26].

A point to ponder: God identifies wisdom and the church as feminine.

Wisdom: “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action”

So, we have a simple plan to start the day with a “washing of water with the word”, quiet meditation and prayer. These steps will take care of the matter of relaxation. Let’s move on to the matter of setting priorities.

No doubt you have flown on a commercial airplane. The FAA requires safety instruction at the beginning of all commercial flights. What is the instruction on oxygen masks? That’s right: PUT YOUR MASK ON FIRST. Why? If you don’t take care of your self FIRST, you will be unable to care for anyone else.

Can you handle a little more from the Bible? If yes, then I urge you to read Proverbs 31:10-31 in more than one version. You will begin to discern a pattern. The Virtuous Woman has priorities. First, she takes care of herself. Second, she takes care of her family. Third, she takes care of the remainder of her duties, even working outside the home or running a home-based business.

Virtuous: “agreeing with or following moral and ethical principles;
morally excellent”

All you have read up to this point is not written to support one man’s theory on how a woman should live. I’ve lived nearly a half-century with a virtuous woman who follows the Biblical model – my wife, a mother of four children, who is my business partner of over 30 years.

Philippians 4:13 (Amplified version) says, “I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]”

Can you handle it? Yes, you can! Just remember to put on your oxygen mask first before others who may need your assistance.

John White
Rockwall, Texas

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An update on emergency preparedness

Over recent weeks, I published blogs promoting emergency preparedness. I am pleased to report that both CERT classes available in Rockwall are filled to capacity. The Rockwall CERT team says they expect to schedule another CERT class next month. As classes become available, I will post those notices.

In the photo below, Houstonians found themselves short on basic commodities essential to day to day life.

kroger clients lined up outside Kroger during hurricane harvey

How can you beat the last minute shopping rush? Have a week’s supply of nonperishable foods stored at home, along with other aids to endure short-term situations like hurricanes.  By the way, at the moment, a new hurricane is in the Carribean Sea and it’s following Irma’s path.

It has been my objective to alert my fellow Americans to the potential disasters that can disrupt your daily life. FEMA describes most of them and offers advice on how to deal with each situation.

One CERT fellow chided me for being an alarmist. His notion of CERT volunteer work is traffic control during parades and occasional assistance to homeowners after tornadoes or floods.

On 8/19/17, I published A Case for Emergency Preparedness – Natural Disasters. One genuinely potential natural disaster is an eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano.

There are sixty such supervolcanoes around the world.
Scientists monitoring and studying Campi Flegrei, a supervolcano in southern Italy, warn us this supervolcano is about to erupt. Read from https://phys.org 9/18/17 Scientists locate potential magma source in Italian supervolcano which states, “Scientists have found the first direct evidence of a so-called ‘hot zone’ feeding a supervolcano in southern Italy that experts say is nearing eruption conditions.”

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-scientists-potential-magma-source-italian.html#jCp

What happens if this particular supervolcano blows its top? One report predicts, “If the analysis is accurate, air transport could be thrown into complete anarchy, with flights over European skies suspended indefinitely.”

Indefinitely is an adverb that means the disruption would possibly last a very long time. Disruption of all air traffic in Europe would directly affect life in the United States.

Is a supervolcano about to blow its top? Only God knows. Should we be prepared to deal with natural disasters and other emergencies that can disrupt life for a time? I say, yes, and my wife and I are prepared for at least one week’s disruption.

Undergoing CERT training can prepare you to survive just about any disaster and to be of service to your community.

As CERT classes come open, I’ll be posting information on how to participate.

John White
Rockwall, Texas

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2017 Movie and TV Guide – Straight from the Emmys

Update: Emmy Awards Ratings Hit Low On Trump-Bashing Night; ‘Sunday Night Football’ Dips

All pictures below are screenshots of presenters at the 2017 Emmy Awards and were extracted from a Fox News Insider article titled Dolly Parton’s Racy Emmys Moment

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Anti-Trumpers Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton & “Hanoi” Jane Fonda
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Anti-Trumper Steven Colbert
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Anti-Trumper Kate McKinnon
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Anti-Trumper Alec Baldwin
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Anti-Trumper Kumail Nanjiani
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Anti-Trumper Julia Louis-Dreyfus
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Anti-Trumpers Tatiana Maslany & Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Segregation is not Racist

Societal segregation is not inherently racist. Segregation is a natural human experience. Positive Examples:

  • Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA)
  • Democrat voters
  • Republican voters (including me)
  • Libertarian voters
  • Boy Scouts (including me)
  • Girl Scouts
  • LULAC (including me)
  • The NRA (including me)
  • Sunday School and Church groupings (including me)
  • Law Enforcement Officers (regardless skin color)
  • The American Legion (including me)
  • The ACLU
  • Labor Unions

The above examples are normal, healthy aggregations of people who share a common interest. Is a church of mostly white people racist? If yes, then all churches of mostly black people are racist, as are all churches of brown-skinned, Spanish-speaking people.

We are naturally drawn to people who look like us. Period. This true for me and it is true for you, also. We are also naturally drawn to people who share common objectives.

Negative Examples:

  • Black Lives Matter (BLM)
  • ANTIFA
  • Nazis
  • Islamists
  • Ku Klux Klan
  • Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
  • Organizing For Action (OFA)
  • The ACLU
  • Labor Unions

Under what circumstances is societal segregation beneficial to the general population of

hurricane harvey rescues - see the difference
Graphic Creator Unknown

a nation? The keyword lies within the question: beneficence (the doing of good; active goodness or kindness; charity). Beneficial segregations do no harm to other segregations. A congregation is the opposite of a segregation.

 

Did you notice I listed the ACLU as both a good example and a bad example of segregation? Likewise Labor Unions?

A segregated congregation is beneficent when it contributes to the betterment of a nation and malevolent when it serves to harm a nation.

How is it possible a segregation can be both a good example and a bad example? What principle factor shifts a people group from one category to the other?

My limited observations (my lifespan is somewhat less than a century) of human activities tell me the difference is the worldview of a people group. For over one-third of my life, my worldview was godless, existentialist.

For the first one-third of my life, my worldview was godless, existentialist. At a point in time, my worldview began a phenomenal reformation due to an epiphany, a revelation that left me with an unshakeable faith and an indefatigable desire to benefit my fellow man (the human individual as representing the species, without reference to sex).

This reformation is incomplete. When will it be complete? “…I am certain that God, who began the good work within [me], will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6 personalized

My worldview motivates me to respect the opinions of others whose worldviews run counter to my own. It could be said, so I’ll say it, respect is evidence of love.

Don’t be paralyzed by political correctness when your association(s) come under attack If your segregated group is beneficial to the nation, starting with your community. On the other hand, if you find yourself associating with a group for which the goal is to harm others, you need to have a little talk with God and He will probably tell you to avoid evil associations.

I close with a thought on selfishness. Selfishness, like the above remarks on benevolent and malevolent segregations,  is good when you seek to become a better person. In fact, the Bible indicates a benevolent selfishness is highly desirable. I refer to Mark 12:20-31 where Jesus answered a question about the greatest commandment.

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Segregation is not necessarily racist. Evil desires in the heart of a man or woman are inherently racist and selfish. If you have black skin and attend a church with other black-skinned people, that’s okay. If you advocate protecting the natural rights of a particular people group, that’s always okay. Go ahead and enjoy your beneficial segregated groups guiltlessly.

John White
Rockwall, Texas

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Venezuelan Tyrant Macuro Turns to Rabbits for National Salvation

Can Bugs Bunny save Venezuela?

Easy answer: No. Rabbits cannot save Venezuelans. How did Venezuela come to this situation of hunger, government tyranny, murder, and silencing of public dissent?

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Listen to this CNN report titled: Can rabbit meat save Venezuela from going hungry? http://cnnmon.ie/2h5lAFE

Socialism did NOT begin with former president Hugo Chavez; it began with a people who expected the government to provide all their needs. It did. For a span of time. Then the expected happened: Venezuela began to run out of money and credit.

As former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

For the reasons made so obvious above, I have opposed ObamaCare even before Obama assumed office. Nothing has changed my mind.

I learned some neighbors near me cannot retire because they can’t afford the $800/month ObamaCare premium and neither can they afford the $8,000 deductible.

The government does some things very well and those things authorized by our Constitution are those that go well.
When we the people expect the government to take on responsibilities outside constitutional boundaries, we get similar results as do the Venezuelans.

I urge you to remind the House of Representatives and the Senate that our desire and the promise of our Republican Party was for a full repeal. Not a fix. Not more loopholes. Not repealed and replaced. Repealed. Period.

The National debt now soars well above $20 trillion with no end in sight. Higher tax rates will not pay down the debt, but higher incomes can. Therefore, I also urge you to demand the elimination of the Death Tax that robs widows and heirs of their inheritances, and abolition of all corporate income tax which is double taxation.

We small business owners can attest to the fact we pay income taxes twice: first on corporate earnings, then on our personal income.

Socialism blinds a people. By the time the people realize socialism is unsustainable, it’s just too late.

John White
Rockwall, Texas

Venezuela struggling through a Cuban-style “Special Period”

Headline: Venezuelans Eating Dogs, Zoo Animals as Economy Collapses

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After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cubans suffered greatly through what Fidel Castro called “The Special Period“. Collectively, the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent Cuban “Special Period” (my Cuban friends always make quotation marks when they mention this phrase) demonstrate the inevitable end of a socialist economy.

“This is the result of 18 years of misery and socialis[m], and we have the responsibility to denounce it, but above all to do what is necessary to change it. To wait another year is to prolong hunger, allow more deaths, it is pain. How much more will we ask the people to withstand?” – Vente Venezuela Coordinator Javier Chirinos

What’s next? I foresee a violent and bloody civil war in Venezuela’s future. A Civil war in Venezuela could (and probably will) ignite rebellions in Columbia and Ecuador. I can even imagine anti-government uprisings in Mexico.

There are communists in all western hemisphere countries who hate Americans as they oppose civil freedoms.

Nicolás Maduro is without a doubt attempting to establish a communist government in his country of Venezuela. His adoration of Fidel Castro and his use of Cuban bureaucrats to run Venezuelan government is all the evidence you need.

John White
Rockwall, Texas

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A threat of nuclear war? As Yogi Berra would say, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

Headline: BREAKING: NORTH KOREA CLAIMS IT HAS DETONATED A HYDROGEN BOMB

north korea nuke exploded

* * * * * * * *
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake in North Korea early Sunday was likely the result of the country’s sixth nuclear test, media reports said.

North Korean state media claimed early Sunday that the blast was a test of a hydrogen bomb. The test was estimated to have a yield of 100 kilotons, meaning a blast that was four to five times more powerful than the explosion in Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.
Fox News | 3 Sept. 2017 | http://fxn.ws/2eRaPmh
* * * * * * * *

A local fellow active in a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) told me my postings on the subject of emergency preparedness are scaring people. Well, I hope this is true. My goal is to go beyond scaring you to motivate you to adopt an emergency-preparedness mindset.

What damage can we anticipate the detonation of a single 100-kiloton nuclear bomb? Consider the following magnitudes of distance from ground zero.

1 – the fireball would measure 3.6 miles in diameter
2 – the deadly 500 rem radiation dose would encompass an area 9.3 miles in diameter
3 – the thermal radiation (heat) would cause third-degree burns and widespread mortality throughout an area 95.76 miles in diameter

In the years of my youth, Civil Defense was the agency that promoted emergency preparedness throughout the USA. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the threat of nuclear annihilation was greatly lessened. Governments fell into complacency.

The family of nuclear nations has grown to include Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, Russia, China, the USA, and North Korea. Last on this list is the current threat.

Disasters disrupt all manner of services from electrical power to water resources, from motor fuel shortages to empty grocery shelves. and even down to hospitals unable to care for patients.

Personally, I have no fear of chubby-cheeked Kim Jong-un and his nuclear arsenal. I fear the inevitable chaos, anarchy, and shortages of basic things to support day to day life.

Surely, you read news stories from Houston about armed looters that emptied stores and even fired upon rescue workers. Houston PD couldn’t even begin to answer calls for help.

What would you do for short-term food and water? How would you come to the aid of injured family, friends, and neighbors?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the contemporary version of the old Civil Defense. FEMA provides a wide array of educational resources that are used to train citizens to come to the aid of fellow citizens who are victims of disasters. Trained citizens make up Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT).

Rockwall CERT will be hosting a two day FEMA Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Basic Training Class will be held on September 23rd & 30th. The class iscity of rockwall CERT logo conducted on two consecutive Saturdays from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm each day, and includes hands-on indoor and outdoor training. Course curriculum includes disaster preparedness, fire safety, controlling utilities, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, introduction to the incident command system, disaster psychology, and terrorism response.

Sign up for CERT training by clicking on this link: http://www.rockwall.com/FireDepartment/cert.asp

Next, click on the icon that says Register Now!
or use this link directly – http://bit.ly/2iRTVZd

Being prepared isn’t just for the Boy Scouts.

John White
Rockwall, Texas

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