My Take on Election Hacking Questions

Did Russia, through a clandestine network of hackers, infiltrate the Democratic National Committee and procure embarrassing emails, giving them to WikiLeaks for public release during the sensitive final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign?  Our own Central Intelligence Agency seems to think so, but Donald Trump adamantly disagrees, stating that there is no way to truly ascertain from where the hacks originated.  I understand the president-elect...he is justifiably sensitive to anything at this time that might cast a cloud over his recent election.  However, not being in his position, my concern about any suspecting hacking doesn't rest in those WikiLeaks releases, but rather in whether the voting tabulation process was compromised.  Let me explain...

Whether or not Vladimir Putin was behind the WikiLeaks emails is something that should rightly be investigated, but it in no way negates the legitimacy of Trump's election.  Remember also that FBI head James Comey pulled his own political stunt (in my opinion) by publicly opening a last-minute investigation into another set of emails relating to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.  Look people, let's face it: the presidential election campaign has always been full of ugliness, false charges, and innuendo aimed at one's chief rival for the job, all of it designed to influence the vacillating wishy-washy undecided voter just before the election...2016 was intense in this regard, but not essentially different than other previous elections.  It's not the email hackers or Comey who were responsible for Trump's victory...it was the voters who put him into office, either by directly voting for him or by refusing to vote for Clinton, be it sitting out the election or voting for an alternate candidate.  I supported Hillary, but I believe that those who made a reasoned, deliberate decision to vote for Donald Trump had their own good points as well, and I highly respect them.  It's the people at the very end, though, those "wishy-washies", who put him over the top...and, yes, many of them, I'm sure, let themselves be unduly swayed by the shenanigans taking place at the very end.  But remember four years ago when challenger Mitt Romney was poised to defeat Barack Obama and that surreptitiously filmed video of him talking about the "47%" was released, sending much of the undecided over to the incumbent at the end?  And this is the quandary that we as a nation are in: the country is politically so evenly divided that, in order to prevail in a national election, it's important to sway the last remaining few undecided...often very ignorant and suggestible...nincompoops over to their side...

Lots of things can influence elections, but it is the voter who ultimately weighs everything and decides.  This is why the integrity of the actual vote count is so important.  I don't know anything about how the voting software for the machines tabulating the vote works, but if there is a reasonable doubt about the integrity of the process among the general public then it is a good idea to have recounts.  So far with the recounts being done it looks as if there is no evidence of any tampering with the votes...that's the best news of all.  There will always be underhanded tactics during campaigns, but people need to believe that the election results are accurate...otherwise our system of freely selecting our own leaders will be threatened...

New Project Examines Foreign Languages Using Bible

A good friend of mine from back in our years at Nova Elementary and High School in the late 1960s to early 1970s, in years past, had his own blog, in which he would rather articulately express his own takes on various subjects...much the way I do on this one...but with his own personal viewpoint.  From time to time, though, he would write an article on some technical, arcane aspect of his career field, which was developing computer software for a major firm.  When I encountered one of these articles, I would recognize it for what it was and leave his blog until another day.  Well, as is probably the case with most of you readers, I have my own relatively esoteric areas of interest that more likely than not won't attract the interest of people at large.  But since these areas are a part of my life, and this blog is all about relating things that are of interest to me in this life, I've decided to devote some blog space to a topic that is of interest to me but possibly not to you: studying foreign languages and learning vocabulary by reading and comparing the same text in different languages.  The text I've chosen is large and easy to obtain: the Bible.  And the languages I've undertaken are Chinese, German, Spanish, and Russian...

The plan is simple: take the sermon I wrote about the previous Thursday and focus on the core Bible passage it was based on...and then write about how it is expressed in one or more of the aforementioned languages.  Let's see...last Thursday's article examined John 1:1-5,10-14.  Let's take the first section of the first verse and how it appears first in English (NIV version), then Chinese (Union version, traditional script), and finally the Chinese pinyin transliteration of that script (all thanks to the WordProject website):

In the beginning was the Word...
太初有道...
Taì chū yǒu dào...

Those diacritics you see on the Chinese pinyin sentence are tonal markers, something I've never been able to adequately master over the years. Also, each character corresponds one-to-one with each pinyin syllable.  And now I'll rearrange the two languages, using pinyin instead of the characters, to give a sense as to what the individual words and phrases mean:

in the beginning... taì chū ("extreme beginning")
was...yǒu ("there was")
the Word...dào ("the path, way")

If you read off the parenthesized English, then you get something like, but not the same, as the original English.  That's always the way it seems to be with these translations...and makes it the more interesting...

Well, that was my introduction to this new project, which I can see will consume quite a bit of my time in the future.  So don't be surprised if some day in the not-to-distant future you see one of these articles focusing on comparing different language translations of Bible passages.  My ultimate goal is to do this on a weekly basis...

 

Feeling Out of Sorts, Partially Blaming the Weather

I know for a fact that the weather around me has an effect on my disposition and attitude.  It isn't just a matter of wanting certain conditions, but also an expectation that the weather I'm experiencing corresponds to the season we're in.  Right now, it is the middle of December, a time that I am accustomed to relatively cool temperatures and dry air.  The pattern in years past has been for generally cool conditions for a few days until just before a cold front hits us, when it briefly heats up after which much colder air pours in.  Instead, this year the norm is to have a string of hot, humid days with a brief downward spike in temperature when a cold front sweeps through...and then back to the heat.  It shouldn't as a rule be hitting the 80s day after day as it has been doing here in northern Florida.  Well, the last few years have also been warmer than usual, come to think of it.  Can't be global warming, though...no, no, no, no, can't say that...

So I've been a bit out of sorts all day, and I believe the weather may have something to do with it.  It isn't that I physically feel sick...if anything the opposite is true.  Maybe I'm just a little too sensitive to my environment, whether it's the news...little good going on there (unless you're a fan of the Russophile misogynist corporate-elitist militarist cyberbully-elect), weather...or even just a more grating, irritating effect of the sounds and sights around me...

Will Dolphins Have Breakthrough Season Even With Tannehill Injury?

Just when it looked as if the National Football League's Miami Dolphins would finally step up this year and challenge for the playoffs, Ryan Tannehill, their starting quarterback for the last few seasons, injured his knee in the third quarter of their game against Arizona and will probably miss the rest of the season.  Backup quarterback Matt Moore came into the game and the Dolphins, after giving up a 12-point second-half lead to the Cardinals, lost it all but managed to kick a late-game field goal to prevail in the end, 26-23.  They are now 8-5 with three games to go in the regular season.  Their next opponents are the New York Jets, a road game, this coming Saturday and will travel again to play Buffalo a week later (Christmas Eve).  Then on New Year's Day they'll close it out at home against New England.  With Tannehill in there, all of these games were winnable, even the one against the Patriots...now there's a big question as to whether Moore can step in there and salvage the season.  Miami hasn't had a winning season since 2008...that was also the last year they made the playoffs.  At this current writing, they are in the final wild card playoff spot for their conference, but in all likelihood won't make the postseason unless they win at least two of their last three games.  In 2013 and 2014 under then-head coach Joe Philbin, the Dolphins were in playoff contention late each season but choked and played poorly their last games, finishing 8-8 in each.  Last year Philbin was fired after a poor start and they finished last in the division at 6-10.  I don't know how well they will be able to compensate for Tannehill's injury, but this year under new coach Adam Gase I've noticed a higher level of enthusiasm and competition from this team, reflected in their consistently clutch performances in close games.  One player does not an entire team make, and Tannehill hasn't exactly been a Tom Brady, anyway.  Matt Moore has shown a good level of competence at times in the past and has the potential to be an effective enough play manager to help this team finish with a breakthrough season.  Should be interesting to see how they do in the next three weeks...

Adding PJ Harvey's New Album to My Favorites of '16

Having written only a few days ago about my three favorite albums of 2016, I now feel like expanding that list to four, having obtained a copy of PJ Harvey's The Hope Six Demolition Project after listening a track from it played on my Music Choice TV Indie channel.  Until then I had never heard of her and had to do a little research to find out about this talented musician.  It turns out that PJ Harvey (the initials stand for Polly Jean) is an English alternative rock artist who has been recording since 1988, and as a solo act since 1993.  She has won several awards as well as having her albums ranked among the all-time best.  On this latest release of hers are three tracks I especially like: The Wheel, The Orange Monkey, and Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln.  The lyrics range from love songs to social and political commentary, and the instrumentation and style from one song to the next is diverse and multilayered...this is one good, creative musician and singer.  I've also picked up her acclaimed 2000 album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and have been enjoying it as well, my favorite track being Good Fortune, which has a grungy, Nirvana-like sound to it...

PJ Harvey has released nine studio albums so far, and I'd like to hear them all.  It's funny how some great musical acts can escape my attention for all these years...well, maybe its not that funny: radio nowadays is a bastion of mediocrity with regard to current popular music and continually ignores quality artists...

Quote of the Week...from Mohandas Gandhi

There is more to life than increasing its speed.    ---Mohandas Gandhi

Although the life of Mohandas Gandhi tragically ended in 1948 at the hands of an assassin, this quote of his is ever-so pertinent to today's world in the early 21st century.  Of course, in his day technology had already made incredible advances over the previous century with the advent of radio and the telephone in the field of communications and of the railway system, automobiles, and airplanes in the field of transportation.  But now, with television...be it cable, satellite, or streaming, cell phones with their applications, and the Internet with its social media, the speed and portability with which we can use these products has entered new frontiers.  In spite of this increase of the access and quickness of things, though, people at large don't seem to be any happier than they were when I was little and we only had one phone in our house and a TV that got four channels in a heavily metropolitan area...and of course a typewriter instead of a computer.  The fact is, as humans, we are very adept at adapting to new circumstances, quickly turning amazing new innovations into the norm.  Look at how quickly folks back in 1969 got used to people standing on the moon...by early the next year most had already lost interest...

Along with this trend toward accelerating our lives, I see an ever-decreasing attention span in people in general.  If you want to get a point across to someone nowadays, better do it quickly and with a lot of punch...right, Mr. President-Elect, the Twitter King?  I know that there is a lot of concern about the loss of personal privacy in this age of high-level digital data storage and transfer, but there is a concern, going in the diametrically opposite direction, that as individuals we are being diminished, devalued, and worst of all, ignored...

Although I grew up already knowing and expecting television, radio, automotive transportation, and the phone to be an integral part of my life, I do have the perspective of realizing that there is more to it all than having the fastest gadget in my possession.  There are still 24 hours in a day, so yes, it's nice to be able to speed up some things...but only if that means I have more free time left over to slow down the rest of my life and enjoy it...       

12/4 Sermon: Christmas at Family, Part 1

It now being December...and with Jesus being the 'Christ' in Christmas, The Family Church, which I attend here in Gainesville, is embarking on a new series centering on the nature and character of Jesus.  The first sermon, delivered last Sunday by Pastor Philip Griffin, focuses on passages from the Gospel of John, Chapter One and is titled "Truths About Jesus".  Here are those Bible verses, in the New International Version by means of the Bible Gateway website:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Pastor Philip uses these verses to present a picture of Jesus: he has always existed, is with God and is God, is the source of life, is the answer to the world's darkness, suffered and died so that we might live, and knows all my struggles...in the pastor's words.  These are all statements requiring faith, something doctrinal in nature and not to be wrestled with through a lot of precise reasoning.  This is especially true with the "is with God and is God" part, which is part of the doctrine of the Trinity that was a matter of major dispute in the first centuries of the church and is still challenged by some groups, which as a result are often regarded as not being truly Christian by the trinitarian churches.  I have to admit to being a little uncomfortable discussing these types of messages, because it has been my experience that, whether I am speaking to someone of another faith or just a non-believer...or even to a fellow Christian with their own arrangement of opinions on the issue, that doctrinal matters expressed in any degree of detail tend to either go nowhere or end in an argument.  That's just my own experience speaking, and yours may be different.  But our pastor picked just the right passage to begin this series about Jesus and I'm looking forward to the next sermon...

If you're interested in seeing this message for yourself, here is a link to my church's YouTube video website: [link]

Just Finished Reading The 9th Judgment by James Patterson

Or should I say "Just Finished Reading The 9th Judgment by James Patterson AND Maxine Paetro"?  for this Lindsay Boxer crime mystery series has long been a collaborative project between the two...and I wonder just how much of a role that Patterson, whose name on the credits will naturally generate more sales and popularity, plays in actually writing these short novels, churned out every couple of years or so.  Lindsay is a San Francisco police homicide investigator, whose job title and rank tends to go up and down like a yo-yo as the series progresses.  With one change in composition over the nine books I've read so far, she has collected three of her friends, together informally called the "Women's Murder Club", to meet often, support each other, and work within their respective professions toward the solving of whatever murder or disappearance is ongoing.  So Claire Washburn, a medical examiner, Yuki Castellano, an assistant prosecutor, and Cindy Thomas, a newspaper reporter, each have their own personal lives and narratives which get attention...but the series is predominantly Lindsay's show...

In The 9th Judgment, we have an outbreak of murders of young women out in public with their babies...another demented serial killer to add to the burgeoning total that this series has produced.  And as a second narrative, there is a young woman teacher who has a second life: as a cat burglar who steals valuable jewelry from wealthy people's estates...even while they are at home!  This subplot was much more intriguing to me as the dangers with each succeeding burglary mount and she finds herself unwittingly drawn into a murder mystery for which she may be the prime suspect...

If as a reader you're going for memorable stories that you want to go back to over and over again, this Women's Murder Club series of Patterson and Paetro probably won't work.  On the other hand, it is easy-flowing reading and the books have been comfortably short, not requiring much of an investment of time and effort. Besides, a lot of folks, myself included, like to check up on the series characters Lindsay, Claire, Cindy, and Yuki to see how they're doing...

About the Books I'm Reading (and Not Reading)

The other day I mentioned on this blog that I hadn't gotten around to reading some of the books of Charles Dickens because I'd seen the stories adapted to movies, such as A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield.  I've also experienced the same with a contemporary author, Stephen King: although I've read nearly all of his published works, I didn't see the point of reading Misery, Firestarter, or The Langoliers, though, after having seen their film versions.  Still, I do reread novels I like a lot, so why not read them after first seeing the movie? Besides, I've discovered time and time again that the written story is usually much deeper in scope than the movie, while there is often a substantial divergence between the two forms in terms of the plot, ending, and characters...

I'm currently reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons and The 9th Judgment by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.  Hyperion is a the first book of a post-apocalyptic science fiction series...I'm halfway through it and feel clueless as to where it's going with its characters and plot.  That's doesn't mean it isn't interesting, though.  The 9th Judgment is another Lindsay Boxer crime mystery, as I keep "counting" up to the current end of this series.  And I've lined up The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, for my next reading.  Collins was Dan Simmons' narrator in his historical fiction novel Drood, which went into the final years of the life of Dickens, with whom Collins often collaborated.  From Drood, I came away with the notion that Collins wrote in a more sensationalist manner than Dickens...it will be interesting to see if this is reflected in The Woman in White...

Major Storm System Sweeps into North Florida Tomorrow

In advance of the cold front that will usher in relatively cold conditions this Friday, a large, intense storm system is sweeping eastward along the Gulf Coast...and northern Florida, including my hometown of Gainesville, is in its sights.  The storm, which contains a high probability of tornadoes and hail along with generally high winds and some much-needed rainfall, will pass through the Florida panhandle tonight and directly hit us sometime tomorrow morning.  As with other systems of this type, it will be very rough in some places and light in others...I'm hoping that Gainesville misses out on the tornadoes, hail, and strong wind gusts, but not the rain.  Although Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina have lately been devastated by runaway forest fires caused by chronic draught, we here in northern Florida have been suffering lately from a scarcity of rainfall, too. If we don't start to get more precipitation, we'll also eventually be in the news with our own wildfires...

About the Four Professional Soccer Leagues I Follow

I don't know whether you are interested in watching soccer...most likely you associate it with national teams and the World Cup.  I, on the other hand, prefer to follow the various professional leagues, of which just about every country on the planet has one...usually more, arranged in hierarchies from the premier league at the top on downward to the lower leagues.  England has some 24 levels in their entrenched professional soccer system, and teams are annually moving up (promotion) to the next higher league while others are moving down (relegation) to the next lower one.  I follow England's Premier League, as well as the top-tier leagues in Germany (Bundesliga) and Mexico (Liga MX).  All practice promotion and relegation, which to me prevents the last-place clubs from giving up on the season the way we here in America see teams doing, especially in the National Basketball Association (especially the Philadelphia 76ers) and Major League Baseball (lower teams trading off their star players for future prospects midway through the season).  Unfortunately, our Major League Soccer premier league here in the United States and Canada does not practice relegation, even though there already exists two lower-level leagues that could unite with them to form a viable promotion/relegation system...

In MLS this year, the season has finally wound down to the final championship playoff match, to take place next Saturday between Toronto and Seattle. I'll be pulling for Seattle in this one, although I was disappointed that neither of my favorites...Orlando City and Portland (last year's champion)...made the playoffs.  Mexico's Liga MX is also holding its playoffs, and the last of the two-match semifinal series between Club America (based in Mexico City) and upstart Necaxa takes place tonight...you can watch it on Univision (Gainesville's Cox Cable channel 40). Whoever wins tonight will play against "my" UANL Tigres in the finale. Necaxa, by the way, is in its very first year back in the top league after winning promotion from the second-tier Ascenso league last year, performing way beyond expectations by making the playoffs and then advancing this far in them.  In England, Chelsea has returned to lead the league...it won the title two years ago.  Last year's champion, Leicester City, has so far fallen on hard times and is only two points away from being one of the relegation teams...they'd better get their act together, and soon!  And in the Bundesliga, another team just promoted this year, Leipzig, is stunning everyone by sitting at the top of the standings, still undefeated, while perennial champ Bayern Munich is right behind them in second place.  In England and Germany...as well as most of the pro leagues, the regular season is the entire season...no playoffs...and the regular season leader is automatically the champion.  I like it that way, but try telling that to anyone on this side of the Atlantic who can't imagine going through any sports season without playoffs to get excited about...

In case you're wondering why I follow MLS, Liga MX, the English Premier League, and Bundesliga while not following other soccer leagues, the answer is simple: these are the leagues whose matches I can pick up on TV.  And I'm not about to shell out a lot of extra dough just to see the leagues from Spain, France, Italy, Brazil, or any other country.  Besides, four leagues are quite enough for me...

Just Finished Reading Drood by Dan Simmons

The 2009 book Drood, by Dan Simmons, is a historical fiction novel focusing on the last years in the life of mid-nineteenth century English writer Charles Dickens, who authored classics like Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield...and of course A Christmas Carol...as told by narrator Wilkie Collins, a collaborator and friend of the literary giant .  His best writing now behind him, it is 1865 and Dickens is riding a train with his mistress and her mother when it goes off a damaged bridge at Staplehurst, killing many but miraculously sparing his own car alone.  The incident traumatizes Dickens and he never completely gets over it.  According to what he relates to Wilkie, Dickens walks around the horrible scene after the wreck, administering help and comfort to the injured...and comes across an utterly sinister man who calls himself Drood and who is also walking among the casualites, many of whom suddenly die after encountering him.  It is the mystery-veiled relationship that ensues between Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and this Drood character that drives the plot through to the end of the book...

Sometimes when I review a book I've read, I can tell some of what happens in it, careful to leave out spoilers that reveal its conclusion.  But Drood is narrated by Collins, an opium addict who tends to perceive things differently when he is under that drug's spell...and the potential for mesmerism (hypnosis), something for which Dickens has much enthusiasm, is another factor that makes the developing story seem at times unreal.  It reminded me of the times I saw the movies The Matrix and A Beautiful Mind.  In each of these, the audience is eventually confronted with the task of determining what is real and what is...well, something entirely different...

Historical fiction comes in different forms.  In alternative histories, the setting is a world that has diverged in some significant way from how history had actually played itself out...e.g. Hitler won World War II or John F. Kennedy's assassination was prevented.  In other historical fiction, like Ernest Hemingway's Spanish Civil War novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, the setting is a real event but the characters are all fictional...even though famous real names may indirectly impact the plot.  But Drood is different from both of these types, and here is where I really appreciated Simmons' deft writing: from what we know about those years in the lives of  Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, nothing in this tale contradicts anything...yet it creates this incredible imaginary universe full of mysteries and horrors.  Amazing...

There were a few interesting items I picked up reading Drood.  One was that Charles Dickens wasn't just a prolific writer: he was also a prolific walker, often covering 20 miles on a single walk, going at a near-impossible-to-sustain pace of 4 mph...even at times when his health was reportedly suffering.  And keep in mind that he was in his late fifties at the time.  Also, 'The Inimitable", as the narrator often refers to him according to his popular designation in that time, would go on extensive book reading tours, drawing packed houses as he would read whole sections of his earlier works...which he had completely committed to memory.  And finally, you could not have read Drood without noticing the extreme degree of professional jealousy that Collins, himself an established and popular writer, feels about his much more recognized and honored friend.  Throughout the book, in their countless conversations with each other, he tries over and over again to get Dickens to acknowledge their equality in their writing abilities...but to no avail, with one humiliating outcome after another...

Drood is a fantastic book on many levels, and I highly recommend it.  Dan Simmons has also written Hyperion, the first in a science fiction series...I'm in the process of reading that one, too.  I've also become interesting in reading more from Charles Dickens...as well as from his frustrated rival/friend Wilkie Collins...

Quote of the Week...from Juan Ramón Jiménez

I do not cut my life up into days but my days into lives, each day, each hour, an entire life.
                                                                                            ---Juan Ramón Jiménez

Juan Ramón Jiménez was a Nobel Prize-winning Spanish poet who lived from 1881 to 1958, moving to the United States when his native country began its civil war in 1936.  I have read nothing of his works...like last week's Epictetus, my exposure to his output so far has been limited to one provocative quote...

When I was a young child, each day did seem to be an entire life.  Yes, I would think about the future and remember the past...especially with regard to my favorite TV shows...but my reality was firmly rooted in the "here and now".  I think that, as I grew older...like many of you, most likely...my thoughts and focus became trained on the past...with accompanying regrets and resentments...and on the future, with its accompanying worries.  Of course, as mature adults we should all take care of our own lives and of those in our charge, and that involves reflection about the lessons from our past experiences as well as planning and preparation for the future...but that does not mean having a mindset devoid of appreciating and esteeming the present moment.  We're not talking of descending into hedonistic, selfish squalor, but rather the opposite: fighting the impulse to sink into an inertia of automatic routine and the avoidance of discomfort and instead taking risks, putting oneself "on the spot", and allowing more of the world, even with its sometimes unpredictable, ugly, and even dangerous aspects, into our lives.  Yes, let's be responsible but also realize that our entire life does take place in a day...and that day is called "today"...

11/27 Sermon on James, Part 10

Last Sunday was the tenth and final installment in the sermon series on the Bible's New Testament book of James, delivered at The Family Church here in Gainesville by Pastor Philip Griffin.  The focus was James 5:7-20, reproduced here in the New International Version by means of the Bible Gateway website:

⁷ Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. ⁸ You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
¹² Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned. ¹³ Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰ remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Pastor Philip divided the sermon into four parts: practice patience, guard your heart, rely on prayer, and don't give up on each other.  He painted a word picture he credits to a Pakistani who compared hard times to being in boiling water: do you respond in such circumstances like an egg with a hardened shell...or like a potato, softening and more easily molded?  Don't be an egg, be a potato!  The pastor also pointed out that the passage gives three examples about how the wisdom of patience is demonstrated by the farmer, the prophets, and Job.  As for guarding one's heart, Verse 12 is about saying yes or no without having the need to buttress one's own statements with oaths...I personally felt that this was a bit confusing: the text seems to condemn taking oaths, notwithstanding what the pastor said...maybe I'd understand this section better were I to know the cultural background through which the author wrote it.  Regarding the importance of relying on prayer, our church, at the end of the service, followed James' advice and had the elders anoint with oil those with needs and pray for them.  And the last couple of verses remind me of that great old Hollies hit He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother...we don't give up on our brothers and sisters...and hopefully they don't give up on us...

So there you have it: the book of James covered in ten sermons...with my own layman's reactions.  Should you want to hear Pastor Philip Griffin's sermons for yourself, click on this YouTube link for the series: [link].  Also, I have placed links below for each of the articles that I've written about the sermons (click on the number of each sermon):

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

My Running Report for November 2016

In November I ran for a total of 102 miles, down from previous months, while running on 28 of the 30 days.  I was traveling in the early part of the month and had a couple of periods of sickness, contributing to the reduced mileage.  But I consider November to have been a success because I pulled off a 10-mile run (on the 16th) and entered and finished the 10K Turkey Trot race held annually on Thanksgiving morning here in Gainesville...

I'm still gearing up to run one or more half-marathon races in the not-to-distant future.  I might be able to squeeze one in before the end of 2016, but that would entail me traveling a bit outside the Gainesville area.  In early 2017, on the other hand, Ocala will be staging its race in January and the Five Points of Life event will take place in Gainesville in February.  I should at least be able to run in these two races, both of which I am very familiar with from the past...

Bright Stars Abound in the Midnight Sky

When I learned about the stars and constellations as a kid, all of the books would employ star charts based on what the sky looked like at 9 pm Standard Time.  So I grew to associate certain constellations with certain months...e.g, Orion, the most prominent constellation of all, was a"January" constellation because, during that month at 9 pm it would cross the imaginary meridian line that divides the eastern from the western celestial hemispheres.  But there's no need for me to wait for January to witness the exact same phenomenon. This is because, every two hours or so, the so-called "months" in the night sky advance by approximately one month.  So it being late November at this writing, were I to step out and look up at 1 am, then the sky would appear the same as if it were late in January at 9 pm.  And since the period from midnight to one is when I usually do my star-gazing nowadays, I find myself skipping ahead one or two months, so to speak.  So instead of looking at the relatively barren "November" sky, I am instead treated to by far the most spectacular, brilliant section of the heavens...

The stars are not distributed across the sky in a homogeneous manner...no, there are vast areas of dim stars and open gaps between them, while in others the bright stars all seem clumped together.  This is especially true with the "winter" sky as a relatively small section of the sky is loaded with very bright first and second magnitude stars.  I'm speaking of the constellations Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Major, and Canis Minor.  If you draw connecting lines between the stars Rigel (in Orion), Aldeberan (in Taurus), Capella (in Auriga), Castor and Pollux (in Gemini), Procyon (in Canis Minor), Sirius (in Canis Major), and back to Rigel, you would come away with a rough approximation of a vertical ellipse.  Everything on the ellipse and inside is a star-gazer's paradise...outside the stars thin out and grow dimmer...

This past weekend the nights were crisp and cold, and the stars stood out more brightly than normal.  Now, though, we're in a heat wave for this time of the year...but things should get better after the approaching cold front passes through.  Once the night skies are clear again, try stepping out around midnight...and watch the spectacle above you...

And in case you need a guide to the constellations and stars I've mentioned, here is a link to a great interactive star map: [link]. You can adjust the location on it to more closely correspond to where you are.  Since I live in Gainesville, Florida, I just clicked on Jacksonville.  As for the time, it shows by default the sky at the current time...if you want to see what it will look like, say, at 1 am, then you can adjust the settings for that time...

Follow-Up on Yesterday's Article about Recounts

I won't rehash all of my article yesterday about the push for manual recounts of presidential balloting in three key states...you can easily access it if you want.  But since then there have been some developments...

First of all, I don't know why it took folks this long after the election to get a recount campaign going...there are deadlines within those states after which the election results are certified.  It isn't as if the suspicion of Russian interference in the election was something new.  Jill Stein of the Green Party, who started the recount ball rolling with her initiative in Wisconsin, is now threatening to sue that state after officials there authorized the recount...but with manual recounts only optional.  Which of course naturally misses the point entirely.  If they're going to tabulate the results again using the same machines, how will that address any questions about the hacking of voting software?  Also, Wisconsin is stating that it will be hard-pressed for time with this recount, only having 12 days starting on December 1.  I don't get this, either...especially if they're not going to do a manual recount.  After all, it only took a few hours on election night to supposedly get 100% of the total counted the first time around...

And now our thin-skinned, blustering president-elect has jumped into the fray, claiming on his Twitter account that "millions" voted illegally, especially in New Hampshire, Virginia, and California...and that he actually did win the popular vote.  Not a shred of evidence has yet been provided to back up his claims.  Are we going to have to put up with this method of expression from our president for the next four to eight years?  Groan...

It should have been the Clinton campaign's role to promote and raise the money for these recounts, but they are finally coming on board...although it may be a case of too little too late.  Kudos to Jill Stein for standing up for our electoral system and the right for our votes to be accurately counted...shame on Wisconsin for not making a manual recount mandatory.  And I have long run out of words to describe what I feel about our incoming president... 

Recounts Pushed in Three Key Swing States

Although it seemed pretty clear a little past midnight following the November 8th presidential election that Donald Trump had pulled off an improbable win over Hillary Clinton by upsetting her in the hitherto "blue" states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, it is now approaching three weeks later and a movement is steamrolling, begun by Green Party candidate Jill Stein and now being picked up by the Clinton campaign, to have manual recounts in those three states.  The margins for Trump in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are razor-thin while he still leads Clinton by some 70,000 votes in Pennsylvania. Stein's stated purpose in going for the recounts is to restore public confidence in the voting system: there had been allegations of possible Russian hacking of voting machines to tip the tabulating in favor of Trump following the revelation that Vladimir Putin may have been behind the WikiLeaks releases of emails designed to damage Clinton's campaign in the days just preceding the election.  A computer scientist at the University of Michigan, J. Alex Halderman, although skeptical about any hacking, did say that that the software put into the machines could have been compromised beforehand and suggested that the only effective way to ascertain the integrity of the vote would be to have a manual recount...

I did not support Donald Trump, but I believe he was elected fair and square.  The responsibility for the outcome of this presidential election, should this incoming president prove to have been a poor choice for the job as I suspect he will be, is on the American people who voted for him with the full knowledge of what he is all about, as well as on those citizens who decided to sit out this election.  I agree with Professor Alderman and Jill Stein, who stated that she would have demanded a recount regardless who had won: there is a need to dispel suspicions that this election was tampered with by a foreign country.  And if these recounts do go through, the best outcome from them that I see will be to have Trump's victory confirmed and the process vindicated...in spite of my opinion that Hillary Clinton would have been a much better president.  Should the unlikely happen and the recounts throw those states...and the electoral college majority...to Clinton, I fear a very scary period of turmoil and division for the future, as well as a breakdown in faith in our electoral process.  But let's go ahead and do the recounts before we jump prematurely to conclusions.  As far as I am concerned, Trump is the president-elect until definitively proven otherwise...

My Three Favorite Music Albums of 2016

When the year 2016 began, I wasn't thinking all that much about the current scene in recorded music...my tastes put me more in the alternative/indie rock zone and not in the more publicized hip-hop/diva type of music that seems to enjoy such mainstream popularity.  I also like the great old bands and solo artists...although in their old age they have tended to severely decline in the quality of their music.  I was sadly jolted to reconsider this conclusion, though, after hearing in mid-January of the death of British icon David Bowie, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his final album Blackstar.  A few weeks later I saw the video to the title track on TV and immediately began to wonder just what this guy had been up to for the three decades following his mass popularity in the mid-1980s.  So I listened to all of David Bowie's albums and discovered that, unlike the case with many of his contemporaries in the business, he continued to grow and innovate with his advancing years.  I consider Blackstar, along with 1997's Earthling and 1971's Hunky Dory, to be his top three albums with some pretty awesome tracks.  The song Blackstar, lasting a full ten minutes, is currently my favorite song of 2016 and will likely stay in that position when I make my "list" at year's end.  It's sad that David passed on, but had he not I wonder whether I wouldn't still be unaware of his great musical output over the years.  The Blackstar album contains only seven tracks, but they are all pretty lengthy.  The opening track, Blackstar, is a hauntlingly beautfiful piece that presents a mystery as to its intended meaning.  There are also two songs, 'Tis a Pity... and I Can't Give Everything Away, that have a spirited jazzy interplay between Bowie's singing and the saxophone...and the other diverse-sounding tracks stand up to scrutiny as well.  But the song Blackstar overwhelmingly dominates the album...

In mid-2016 Radiohead, one of my favorite current bands, came out with another great album, A Moon Shaped Pool.  I had been a bit disappointed in their previous one, The King of Limbs, from 2011.  But this new release, with its eleven tracks, contains some music that is destined to stand right up there on my personal list of favorites from this group...specifically the songs Burn the Witch,  Daydreaming, Decks Dark, Identikit, and (get ready) Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief.  This are just my favorites...I actually like all of the songs on this album, which is a worthy successor to some of Radiohead's best...

And then there is Regina Spektor, who up to now is probably my favorite recording artist of this century.  I have already written on this blog that my favorite songs of 2010 and 2012 were songs of hers (Us and Firewood, respectively).  Regina, as is the case with both David Bowie and Radiohead, is an artist who had been around a while before I discovered her...I think it was that great song Us that I first heard while listening to an Internet indie music station back in 2010. I consequently collected all of her albums and listen to them often.  I'd been waiting since 2013 for her next album, and finally, at the end of September, it was released: Remember Us to Life.  Her first singles release Bleeding Heart is also the album's opening track and one of my favorites.  Among the other ten tracks, I also like Small Bill$, The Light, The Trapper and the Furrier, Tornadoland, Obsolete, and The Visit a lot...

The year 2016 has been marked by me focusing my attention on certain musical acts and their bodies of work, in particular that of the great David Bowie.  As a result I haven't been listening very much to the radio and what's been coming out from other artists, many of whom I'm sure are worthy of mention...if I had only heard them.  Instead, it's looking as if my top list of favorite songs of 2016 will be heavily dominated by Bowie, Radiohead, and Regina Spektor...

Quote of the Week...from Epictetus

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how to respond to them.
                                                                                                                  ---Epictetus

I found on the Web an alternative quote, also by Epictetus : It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.  The message is similar in both cases: each of us has been placed in this world under our own unique and often very inequitable circumstances.  We can change some of those circumstances, but that comes under how we choose to respond to them, doesn't it?  And then again, there are things we have little or no power over in our lives, and it does us and no one else any good to focus our energies and attention on them.  So yes, reacting or responding to whatever happens with our circumstances requires a sense of discernment that weighs the relative importance of things along with the degree of control we might have to change things should we decide to go down that path...

Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher living in the late first century and early second century AD, a contemporary of the writers of the Greek New Testament in the Bible.  Born a slave in Asia Minor and later in his life banished from Rome back to Greece, he certainly had his own personal circumstances to contend with.  Although his philosophy emphasized the supremacy of human reasoning over the salvation through faith expressed by early Christians, some of the wisdom he imparted seems to overlap that found in writings from James and Paul...

Whether or not I can change my circumstances, my own focus should not be those circumstances, but rather my own behavior in regard to them.  Sometimes my circumstances are the consequences of things that I just did.  For example, this morning I was foolishly walking around in the pitch blackness of the front of my house around six when I walked, full-force, into a wall, my forehead split open in a couple of places.  I didn't just stand there angry at myself for colliding with the wall.  No, I logically screamed out in pain, bringing out Melissa to help me get through my crisis.  The bleeding was squelched, ice was applied, and now I have a couple of cuts above my eye that will be healing for awhile.  As for looking back on my circumstance, I learned to be more careful in the dark...better yet, keep on a little light.  But I'm not sitting around bemoaning what happened: I'm moving on, chastened but wiser...