AUGUST 27, 2024

How many times will I say I am back? How many times will I leave my post and not put words on the parchment? Reminds me of the questions concerning how many times God can forgive a believer.
The first thing the debater wants us to acknowledge is that there is a difference in the forgiveness of original sin and then the forgiveness in the daily sin you and I commit, or at least the ones I commit. You may have reached the blamelessness of Job but I am still working on it.
But the debater has used his imagination to construct either a straw man or a red herring, take your pick. That is because the payment on the Cross covers all sin when we stand before God, (or whoever checks us in when we reach the gate), (or however the process works at our arrival in the heavens). I believe I could go down that rabbit hole I see looming before me, wide and beckoning, with days before I could return to the surface.
Alas, I must throw my ladder with a long extension across the gaping space before me and move on to the other side where my journey continues about how many times I can stop writing and start up again without a penalty being called by the referee. Did you not know that was the subject?
Now that I am safely past that temptation to veer off into the clutches of what happens when I reach the final resting place, the question of whether the payment on the Cross by the shed blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ has to cover everything or only salvation itself and then I have to keep coming back each day to admit once again I have sinned and seek forgiveness. In other words, can I lose my salvation and get it back? I have to add a few extension on my ladder to get over this huge hole that looks like it could rival the Grand Canyon.
But I am on the other side and moving at a pace that could rival one of the elite runners in the Los Angeles Marathon. I know I can’t keep up that pace for long so I better some up for air and take a break.
During the period I was away from adding to the Grist each day, life has tried to take a huge bite of me. I am looking back, briefly, and only to take notes and make adjustments for the future. I am not one of those individuals who lives in the past but I do think self-introspection can be helpful.
So, to address how often or how many times I will leave the pages bare, the answer is, I do not know. In looking back, I see I really wanted to open the spigot and put something on the Grist website. It seems at times that the dam that was keeping the words inside would start to crack but never allow anything to spring forth. Kind of raw but it felt like I was constipated with ideas, words, thoughts, etc., demanding I return and send them forth into space. Whether they were read or not, the writing was therapy for me. Certainly, better than an enema.
Let’s see how long it lasts this time.

AUGUST 28, 2024

Day 2 of the rest of my life. I know, it is unbelievable that I am back for day 2. Nevertheless, even though you probably know more about what is going on the page today than me, I am here.
I see these ads about helping someone who sits down to write their book, maybe continue on a book they have started, or even someone who is writing a continuing column, editorial, etc. I believe they call if writer’s block as the person sits there and stares at a blank page and nothing comes to mind as to what the first word should be. The ad will sometimes act as if the whole day passes, e.g., the sun is shining and the next frame shows the future Pulitzer Prize winner getting up to turn on the light.
Or how about the one that has the writer typing a page, (does anyone actually use a typewriter any more?), pulling the page out of the roller, crumbling it up and throwing it at the waste basket which is overflowing with crumpled up pretend basketballs?
Then the professor shows up with his yardstick pointer in his hand and implores you to sign up with his guaranteed program to break that writer’s block and release the torrent of ideas hiding behind that wall you have constructed to stop the free flow of words to paper. The next best seller is just around the corner, and he will get you around that corner.
And do not pay attention to that large figure looming in the background as this is your lucky day, as you have hit the jackpot, busted the bank, found the special of a lifetime on this very day. You could have been anywhere, but you are here to take advantage of the special of a lifetime!
Somehow it seems to me that this same idea has been used for those pots and pans, that set of knives, the hose that does not crack or leak, or even the stuff that guy paints on his boat and then runs it on the water without sinking. I must interject an admonition here, which I learned from my buddy, Richard. He had a leak in the roof of his RV and put that black stuff that was used to paint the boat on the leak and it worked great. His RV is parked at a RV storage yard on Peck Road, and sits in the sun. It has been a little over a year and that black stuff is now in pieces, crumbled up into little black specs, and the leak is letting the rain into the RV once again. I wonder what the boat looks like after a year.
I would wager that someone who wanders onto this website and reads this, is wondering what I have to offer today at the reduced price I will reveal after I make sure one more time that you know all you are getting and how great the deal will be for your future. If I may borrow from the Bible, and maybe use the story of Peter being asked for money, I could say I do not have anything to sell but what I do have is the offer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sin through the acceptance of the payment of His blood on the Cross for your sins. And it is free, you can not buy it, bargain for it, or make a deal. It reminds me of the show I know you watched at least once in your life, “The Price is Right!” If someone wanted to know more about this deal of a lifetime, check out Revive Church in Long Beach or El Monte or Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills.
So, the page has filled up with words and I am barely getting started. I have yet to experience that “writer’s block” that debilitates so many. Not that everyone would say what I get past the man throwing up the blockade to writing is worthy of printing and charging a fee to read, but the wheelbarrow of words will get dumped if I sit down and touch the keyboard. I get a few newsletters myself and a recurring theme in a couple of them is the idea you pursue your own agenda and not try and make the whole world happy with what you are doing. Obviously, the agenda should not be along something illegal or immoral, which is sometimes hard to determine in today’s woke society. Which is why one must have a moral compass which includes a conscience which is not seared, as described in I Timothy 4:2.
I read an article concerning over 50% of those riding the buses and using the transit system in New York do not pay the fare. Imagine that, 50%. It used to be about 20%, is less than 20% in France and England, where the fines are stiff and enforced if caught. One of the reasons given was the rider claimed they did not have the correct change.  As the article stated, it is hard to believe that reason caused the rate to jump from 20% to 50%.
The article went on to say three of the reasons why people obey the rules are because they believe God wants them to, they have a conscience, and they do not want to be punished, of which the third reason is usually the strongest reason why we obey the rules. And of course, the other side of the coin is the DA’s must prosecute the miscreant who breaks the rules, which is not happening in many democrat run cities.
Our own DA in LA wants something called Restorative Justice to be implemented which is where the victim and the perpetrator sit down together and the perpetrator apologizes, they shake hands, hug and walk out into the sun hand in hand. He has already had a hand in wrecking San Francisco, (along with Newsome and Harris), and now is working on LA. The new recall should work if people wake up from their Rip Van Winkle naptime.
Now, if someone steals my car, I expect that person who is sitting across from me to have a set of keys to a car as good or better than the one he or she stole. And a check for all the out-of-pocket expenses caused by the theft of my car, e.g., the cost to rent a car.
If you want to use the Old Testament way of handling this issue, look at Exodus 22:3-4, which says, “ . . . . Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing, they must be sold to pay for their theft. If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession—whether ox or donkey or sheep—they must pay back double.” Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Gascon.
I have wandered past all the forks in the road above, i.e., subjects raised for perusal of the reader, and never completed the journey down to the end of one of the roads. Maybe they were all dead ends?  I know you should have a theme or subject you carry throughout your meanderings on these papers not made with trees. But one has to remember, this is only the second day and I am still trying to find the place to keep my fingers on the keyboard. So blame them for the wonderings thoughts and pray they get used to the daily regimen of sending forth challenging exhortations. See you tomorrow.

AUGUST 29, 2024

What are the rules? Do I have to have something on the Grist site by a certain time in the morning or even in the evening? When I first started doing this, I had a little jingle I started the daily venture with at the beginning of the thought for the day. I tool a break after about 6 months and when I started up again, I tried to copy everything I was doing in that previous six months of writing. It did not work as I had made up some rules for myself during that first period which were not going to work on the second go-a-round. So, that is why the question appears at the beginning of this day’s adventure.
When I was living in my first house, which was located in Orange County, I wanted to get up in the morning and have my coffee while I read the paper. My Damascus Road experience had not occurred yet so there was not going to be any Bible reading in the morning or at any time of the day. I had nothing against the Bible and often wonder why I never cracked the cover as I started reading books in grammar school. I read all the Hardy Boys books and Nancy Drew Mysteries but never got my hand burned touching a Bible.
When I was getting up and trying to make sure I had the email out by 7:30 am each morning, I was kind of equating that with the desire to get up while it was dark, brew the coffee and devour the dauly paper. Probably nowhere equal but who cares, it worked for me.
I was thinking about how this turn at the keyboard should work. Then it came at me like a train roaring down the track, why do I have to have a certain way to make this happen. I do have certain tasks which must be completed each day, e.g., Joshua goes out each morning and each evening. Sometimes at night to make sure his favorite bush is watered, but always the other two trips.
I wonder how many pet owners have realized that having a pet is like having a baby that never grows up, e.g., you have to feed them and clean up after them when they go the bathroom, and you may even have to take them outside to do their business. And what about when they get diarhrea? Anyway, enough of that because Joshua is a part of the family and plays an important role in the life of everyone who lives in the same house with him.
So, since there are no rules, can I write the whole week on one day? Can I write last week’s on the first day of this week? How long does each day’s memorandum have to be? Am I allowed to take a day off?
Every time I get going on this street of no return. I am reminded of the verse in Judges 17:6 “ In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” That is what happens when there are no rules or guidelines, everyone is in charge. This is kind of extreme thinking for my little mark on the paper being all that, making up strict rules and then deciding we are all lost because I am not going to have any rules for how I make my mark on the paper, when it will be made, and all the rest of my made up rules to drive myself crazy.
I started on this track because I felt guilty about not getting my mark done early and then I needed some justification to take away the guilt. And the guilt came from rules which had not even been made, agreed upon or were in place. I was in the deep end of the pool with a heavy anchor tied to my leg, without any scuba equipment available to let me stay under water until I was rescued.
What is really amazing is I am not the most exacting person when it comes to making rules or following them. I am very big on having a moral compass, remembering who God is and who I am, and accountability when one does stray off course.
Believe it or not, I really have a dilemma now! I don’t think I have used the word, “dilemma” in a really long time. REALLY LONG! Anyway, I wrote all that above, which I had no intention of writing when I sat down but out it came, and then I got caught up in a couple of calls, reading an email while on one call, finding out I had to take care of a problem, and never got back to finishing this diatribe until now, which is actually a few minutes into the next day.
I saw a trailer for a new program, which asked the question about who was going to be the best “ethical liar”? I knew I would have to say something about that question some day. Who knew it would be today about yesterday’s Grist posting?
Do I act like I did this all yesterday and post it like it was done yesterday? Would that be what is known as an ethical lie? And if you look at my last paragraph I wrote yesterday, how does that fit into my operational beliefs on how I conduct my life? And then, God knows what I am doing, and how does He view it? Shakespeare wrote something about, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we first practice to deceive.
I am so glad I am in charge, I do not have to answer the question I posed yesterday, today, and can do what I believe is right in my own eyes and sneak this onto the page for yesterday, and no one will be the wiser. I have to go finish that show I taped and fell asleep while watching before I head to bed for a few houts of zee’s. I would say talk to you later today but I don’t want anyone to know I did not finish this before the day ended.

AUGUST 30, 2024

Let me give you an example why Harris is a liar when she says she is for the people. When she was the Attorney General for California, California passed Preposition 8, which, in case you forgot, banned same-sex marriages. The Amendment was challenged and made it to the California Supreme Court, where our Attorney General, who announces she is for the people according to her, was supposed to represent the people, and would do if she really was for the people as she claims.. But Harris did not file an Opposition Brief to the appeal and the appeal won. The appeal then went to the Supreme Court and Holder did the same thing. If Harris was for the people, she would have filed a brief and represented their desires. Check it out if the truth does not trigger you.
So, Harris was finally asked a question by what passes for a journalist on CNN. I believe a third grader could ask better questions as they would keep asking why or how until the interviewee would have to give an answer that made sense.
I would agree that her values have not changed, even though her positions have been said to flip-flop like the fish you caught and laid on the deck of the boat. Harris has not stated her change but some anonymous source in her office has made the claim of the new positions. Harris is still a Marxist at heart, just like her daddy, who taught her everythig he knew.
Sanders honeymooned in Russia and Waltz connected an important event in his life with the Tiananmen Square Massacre and has made more than 30 trips to China, some with students who have acknowledged Waltz supported their system of government and life. This is the person she chose as a running mate.
I do not believe one question was actually asked about how Harris has come around to support fracking. In fact, the question was not even asked if she does support fracking now. We know she did not when she ran in 2020. Only an anonymous source from her side says she does now. Does she? Bash could have asked her but that is why she is in the position she is, because her job is to cover for Harris and make sure we know “joy” is the key, not policy.
The whole Democratic Convention proves one of my talking points I have been spouting for years. A conservative argues from facts and a liberal and leftist argues from emotions. There were no facts, only emotions for one week. And as a general rule, facts are triggers for the woke and to be avoided at all costs.
Harris wants to make claims about prosecuting but has no answer as to why she was bailing out rioters during the disgusting George Floyd riots. And it was not peaceful protests as the CNN reporter said as the flames ate the buildings behind him when he made that report on live tv.
Harris says the illegal border crossers should be prosecuted but I have not seen one prosecuted during her 3 ½ years as the border Czar, but she will get it done on day one when she is President. Right! Actions speak louder than words and we see her inaction for the past 3 ½ years. In fact, what was her stance when she ran in 2020? Where were any question on that issue? Same value but flip-flop on policy? Where was the follow-up questions on anything she said? Probably in Bash’s notes and crossed out.
The New York Times asked her to get off the ticket in May, (I think it was May), of this year because she was hurting the Democratic ticket. And yet Harris went from the worst Vice-President in history to the cat’s meow in literally one day And all the miscreants and accolades are ecstatic she is their hero to take down Trump, even though it means 4 more years to finish the job she and Joe started 3 ½ years ago, i.e., wrecking the country..
It is a shame the DTS is so strong that low information voters will go for the joy the media is pedaling with their claims they are experiencing at the expense of the damage that will be done by the Marxists running against Trump. Their arguments for them to stay in office all seem to act like Trump was the one in charge this past four years and is responsible for the state of the union today. I believe Harris even made that argument but it probably went over the head of all those mired in their TDS.
If you really believe Trump is destroying democracy, take a gander at how Harris became the candidate. She knew long before the debate between Joe and Donald that Joe had lost most of his marbles and would not be able to buy any more at the marble store. Harris even lied after the debate and said she would tell the America people if Joe was slipping and he still had it and she was proud to work another four years with him as President.
Then the machine stepped in when it was apparent Joe could not win and forced him out and she grabbed the ring as the merry-go-round made its trips round and round. Not one person voted for Harris. Why is the democrat electorate not just a little upset? They did not vote for her but they are forced to support her in November. Democracy at work in the Democratic party!
And for all those who wanted to keep track of Donald’s lies, (if you ever looked at the list, there were only a few, they were just said many tmany times. And they were about things like crowd size and greatest tax reductions. Check it out if facts do not trigger you), how many have Harris and Waltz spit out already? Let’s start with the declaration concerning the border being secure! And of course, Bidonomics is working. Actually this is true, it is just working in the negative realm, not the positive realm.
I am sure I could keep going for days and I will probably return to address Harris and her Marxist ideas again. But for now, I am not sure I would take a bullet for Trump but I definitely know I wouldn’t for Harris or Waltz.