Happy New Year!

Serious Business

Yessir, we're real serious about this physical - er, fiscal cliff stuff! Serious! Attached is the executive order signed by President Obama increasing the pay of Federal employees, including the VP and members of Congress.

www.opm.gov/oca/compmemo/2012/2013PAY_Attach.pdf

God Arrives in Bethlehem

Christmas blessings to you and yours.

Post Tragedy Thoughts

The arguments about more gun control and other policy issues can wait until after Christmas. I hope both sides will back off and allow a decent interval before starting a strident public debate. There are some things, however, that should be said now.

First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of both the Connecticut and the Clackamas Town Center shootings. I cannot imagine your sadness and can only mourn with you and pray for God's peace in the days ahead. 

Secondly, it is this same world into which Christ was born. Our lives are lived out against a background that is both light and dark like a Rembrandt painting. The light will not disappear because God will continue turning the darkness into light. That is the real Good News of Christmas. Christ came into the world to do just that and His Word will not be defeated. We have a choice to cooperate with Him or sit it out.  Choose hope; choose real life!

Finally, let the light of Christmas flow into you and love your loved ones - don't get caught up in the commercial rush. Spend time, listen to them, love them - really love them.  That is ultimately what is lasting and not the trinkets that we exchange. Despite the abundant reasons for sadness, let the love overcome the darkness. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Advent: The Chain is Broken (Third Sunday)

We live in a horribly broken world that is growing worse every day. The unspeakable atrocities at Clackamas Town Square and in Connecticut are but the latest illustrations and on the world scene, they are mere blips when hundreds more are being cruelly slaughtered or persecuted each day elsewhere. It was no different in Mary's day. The Romans, the Assyrians, the Babylonians and many others killed slowly to set an example and sometimes just for sport. Darkness ruled but God's Word does not return to Him empty and He sent light into Mary's womb to overcome the darkness. There was finally hope and Mary responds with faith in her beautiful song to God, The Magnificat, which is recorded in these verses. She knew she was favored among all women, but so were we all. Blessed is He who fulfilled His promises of long ago in a humble young girl and brought a living Hope to the world. Luke 1:39-56

Clackamas Shooter in Draw Down

Here is a story that we haven't heard much about. Thanks KGW for getting it out.

The shooter's weapon jammed during his murderous rampage at Clackamas Town Center, but while he was trying to clear it, he looked up and saw 22-year old Nick Meli drawing down on him with a loaded pistol. Meli has a concealed weapon permit and had the shooter in his sights when he held fire because of the risk of hitting someone behind the assailant. Rather than holding his ground against an armed combatant, the shooter fled and apparently ended up in a dead-end corridor where he took his own life. Kudos to Meli, but one wonders if the outcome would have been different for the victims if 4-5 people drew down on this guy as he started shooting. 

www.kgw.com/news/Clackamas-man-armed-confronts-mall-shooter-183593571.html

(Tip o' the hat to Bill Brooks)

NDEs

Near Death Experiences. As a Christian, I certainly believe that death is not the end. It is nevertheless interesting to read first person stories of what the other side may look like. 

Dr. Mary Neal, an orthopedic surgeon describes her NDE in Chile during a whitewater kayak trip. As a general rule, in my experience surgeons are not given to flights of fancy and her account is no-nonsense. She concludes by saying that God is more than we can ever imagine. That statement I know to be true having caught glimpses of Him now and again. Whatever may come, because He is good, so too will we find heaven. 

www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/december-web-only/mary-neal-describes-her-visit-to-gates-of-heaven.html?order=&start=1

Obama's Private Swearing-In

Betcha didn't know that the President is having a private swearing-in ceremony at his second inauguration and the press isn't invited. There is some precedent in terms of a private swearing-in ceremony, Ronald Reagan for instance, but the press was there. Even Chuck Todd, NBC's White House correspondent, is dumbfounded:

" 'I'm stunned that this is even an issue; it boggles the mind," NBC News White House correspondent Chuck Todd told POLITICO. 'This is not their oath, this is the constitutional oath. It's not for them. It's for the public, the citizens of the United Sates. It just boggles the mind. How is this even a debate?' "

Chuck, Chuck, Chuck! How could you guys in the media have ever known Obama was like this? I mean just because he has always acted like Il Duce - who could have guessed that he would do something like this? I can hardly wait until the decrees start coming down. 

townhall.com/columnists/tonykatz/2012/12/11/obama-to-take-oath-in-private-because-its-none-of-your-business-thats-why-n1464446

Google's Fair Share

Google's folks heavily supported President Obama this last election. Yessir, they pay their fair share alright. Well, as it turns out, not so much. Can you say Bermuda? 

That's right - Bermuda with no corporate income tax! Google offshores money there and saves a boodle (technically billions) in taxes from both Europe and the U.S. by so doing. OK kids, do as I say and not as I do. Hypocrites.

www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-10/google-revenues-sheltered-in-no-tax-bermuda-soar-to-10-billion.html

Advent: The Door Opens (Second Sunday)

Gabriel opened the door and briefly paused at the portal peering into the gloom. His vision sharpened as he looked through the twilight for the person to whom he was to deliver the very special greetings from the Father Himself.  Gabriel's gaze settled on her walking through a small village and he quickly parted the veil and stepped on to earth appearing before Mary almost immediately. 

To Mary, it all came in a rush. Blinding light; a dazzling giant figure addressing her: "Most favored among women." She felt faint and terrified simultaneously. Just as suddenly, a warm wind blew, tousling her hair and a feeling of complete peace settled on her. Son of God. Me, Mary? How can this be? Let it be done. And it was.   Luke 1:26-38.

Remember Pearl Harbor

The 2012 Bullpucky Man of the Year

Like a lot of companies, Costco is paying out a huge dividend to its shareholders before December 31 to avoid the tax increase on dividends effective January 1. In fact, the company borrowed $3.5 billion to do this and dropped its credit rating as a result. Not like a lot of companies, co-founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal spoke at the Democratic Convention about how the rich need to step up and pay their "fair share" and show concern for the long term health of their companies and not be "reap and run" executives. Sinegal pocketed a cool $14 million in the dividend payout and saved himself $4M in taxes by doing it before December 31. Way to go Jim! And for that, you are the Bullpucky Man of the Year for 2012!

www.nbcnews.com/business/costco-spend-3-billion-special-dividend-1C7316258

Coulter's Apology

Confession is good for the soul and Ann Coulter is undoubtedly feeling a lot better today. She makes an apologia to young voters for thinking they were all Obama zombies. The Pew Research analysis that she highlights, though, is very disturbing and does not bode well for the future of this country. Thus saith Coulter:

" I apologize to America's young people, whose dashed dreams and dim employment prospects I had laughed at, believing these to be a direct result of their voting for Obama.

On closer examination, it turns out that young voters, aged 18-29, overwhelmingly supported Romney. But only the white ones.

According to Pew Research, 54 percent of white voters under 30 voted for Romney and only 41 percent for Obama. That's the same percentage Reagan got from the entire white population in 1980. Even the Lena Dunham demographic -- white women under 30 -- slightly favored Romney.

Reagan got just 43 percent of young voters in 1980 -- and that was when whites were 88 percent of the electorate. Only 58 percent of today's under-30 vote is white and it's shrinking daily.

What the youth vote shows is not that young people are nitwits who deserve lives of misery and joblessness, as I had previously believed, but that America is hitting the tipping point on our immigration policy."

townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2012/12/05/america_nears_el_tipping_pointo

Observation Point

Yesterday's Breakpoint column focused on Bob Welch, a talented writer that I really like, who makes his daily living as a sportswriter for the Eugene Register Guard and fulfills his calling by writing thoughtful novels about how Christ impacts the relationships of those closest to us. Welch says that, "Grace is the foundation of the Christian faith. Jesus' granting us grace by forgiving our sins flies in the face of virtually every other religion, which operates on a you-get-what-you-deserve basis. But Jesus says, in essence, you don't get what you deserve. You get what you don't deserve.” Christmas is the season commemorating the fullest expression of God's grace in the form of His son coming into the world - the substance of things long hoped for. That is something for which I am very, very thankful and is deserving of the grand celebration of Christmas. 

www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/20953

Get a Clue!

Which is precisely what John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have not managed to do. They have shown up for a nice cozy backroom, smoke-filled poker game with the Administration where you bluff, raise, draw, etc., you know, the game that Washington pols always play. Too bad Obama and his guys are out on the football field playing a football game with no opposition to the cheers of the media and the public. In consultant talk - the paradigm has changed. In real people talk: "Earth to Boehner and McConnell: the other team doesn't want to negotiate - they want to stomp you into the ground and be done with you!" Obama is campaigning and he will not stop until he reaches his goal of eliminating Republicans as a serious political force. Get in the real game or soon it will be too late and you will be sitting there wondering what happened!

Advent: Heaven is Stirring (First Sunday)

God has not spoken to his People, the Israelis, for 400 years. He starts to speak now. Heaven is stirring.

Luke 1:5-25

The Future of Aerial Combat

Look Ma, no hands! Well, at least no pilot on board. This is the Navy's new X-47B UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) making it's first catapult launch. In the next few years this aircraft will probably be joining the fleet as an attack aircraft. It is very stealthy, has good range, and as you can see from the size, is able to carry a lot of ordinance. The pilots will be comfortably seated in a building  in Nevada with much of the mission on an auto-profile which the pilot can override at any time. Bad guys will not have a good day when these things arrive on the scene looking for trouble.