What scares me most about a possible second presidential term for Donald Trump is not Trump himself but rather the fact that for his supporters there is no line that Trump cannot cross at which point he will lose their support. We appear to be split 50/50 in the United States which means that the only way Trump can be held accountable is if members of his own party do so, and that’s not just people in Congress but also actual citizens. So, you say you support Trump and you will vote for in November, fine, that is your right, but does that mean you give him a blank check? What can he not do?
Year in books for 2023
I doubled the number of books that I read in 2022. Here are the books I finished reading in 2023.
Enjoying a day in Grand Rapids before hockey tonight.
Today I reached a milestone of sorts, our car crossed the 100, 000 mile mark. It’s the first time I’ve owned a car that I’ve put that many miles on. When I was younger I leased cars so never put this many miles on, but I’ve grown to appreciate not having a car payment and that along with a big decrease in how much we drive has us holding on to our cars longer.
We got a green Christmas, but there is a strange glowy thing in the sky.
“When we say “Come, Lord Jesus” on this Christmas Day, we are preferring his Lordship to any other loyalty system or any other final frame of reference. If Jesus is Lord, than Caesar is not! If Jesus is Lord, then the economy and stock market are not! If Jesus is Lord, then my house and possessions, family and job are not! If Jesus is Lord, than I am not! That multileveled implication was obvious to first-century members of the Roman Empire because the phrase “Caesar is Lord” was the empire’s loyalty test and political bumper sticker.”
— Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent by Richard Rohr a.co/6HYJqgR
“We do not think ourselves into a new way of living. We live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”
— Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent by Richard Rohr a.co/czanKJf
Weird weather on Christmas Eve. The birds seem happy, they are very vocal.
Finished reading: This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley 📚
“A life that is holy is a life that allows for all of your uncertainties, your curiosities and unbelief. That doesn’t just allow for them but holds them as sacred. Spirituality that is not permitted these liberties is merely subjugation. It is not in protection of the divine; it is in protection of fragile people who are unable to allow spiritual freedoms without their own spirituality feeling threatened. It’s a spirituality that is terrified of meditation for fear of resembling another faith tradition. It’s a spirituality that spends more time on apologetics than conversation and telling stories.”
— This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley a.co/7ANtBzb
One major improvement that Lilihub has over the native micro.blog web app is that when reading the Timeline past the first page and then clicking a link, the back button properly returns me to the place in the timeline where I clicked the link, that doesn’t happen with micro.blog.
Over the course of my career the company I work for has provided me a number of different computers to do my job, most of them have been pretty cheap devices. However, for a period of time I was provided with IBM Thinkpads including the 701c that had a unique, expanding, “butterfly” keyboard. It has been a long time since I have thought about that computer, but today I read a description of how one was restored. Nobody tries changes to physical designs of computers like they did back in the day.
It’s the first day of winter and what snow we got earlier is almost gone. Forecast through Christmas is for temperatures in the mid 40s.
“We all tend to aim for the goal instead of the journey itself, but spiritually speaking, how we get there is where we arrive. The journey determines the final destination. If we manipulate our way, we end up with a manipulated, self-made god. If we allow ourselves to be drawn and chosen by love, we might just end up with the real God.”
— Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent by Richard Rohr a.co/7fQnnXk
It’s another MLB offseason, deep in to December, during which the Chicago Cubs have yet to sign any free agent. By this time last year the Cubs had signed Dansby Swanson after seeing the other top tier free agents go to other teams. Back in November when people were reacting to the Cubs hiring Gregg Counsell as manager I was skeptical that that hire was a sign that the Cubs were going to be aggressive in the free agent market. I believe that Hoyer most likes Counsell’s success without having top tier players, so I expect more of the same. Really. of such free agents only Cody Bellinger remains and I suspect the length of contract he wants is not what Hoyer is willing to give. I don’t see the Cubs returning to the World Series as long as Hoyer is in charge.
We got a dusting of snow yesterday, enough to cover the grass. I don’t expect the snow to last for Christmas.
What I like most about Readwise Reader is its support for keyboard shortcuts, just about anything one might want to be done can be done via the keyboard. Unfortunately, support for keyboard shortcuts is highly dependent on Javascript and that seems prone to breakage. It seems about every four months or so the keyboard shortcuts in Reader stop working, and we are in one of those phases. Right now I am seeing shortcuts disappearing just about every time I move from one article to the next, to restore them I have to reload the page. I’ve found the problem exists in Chrome and Firefox. I’ve sent feedback to Readwise so hope they fix this as they have fixed other occurrences.
Got an early Christmas present from Google last week when the December 2023 Security Update was pushed to the Pixel 7a. After the update the battery life has dramatically improved. Seeing more deep sleep and with it sub 2% per hour drain with the screen off per AccuBattery, which is more in line with my prior Pixels.
It is said that what Jesus most often spoke was, do not be afraid, and some claim the United States is a Christian nation, yet those people are driven by fear. Christian nationalism is not about following Christ, it is much the opposite.
“Tyrants thrive in communities of fear. They deceive the fearful into believing they will resolve their agony. They’ll promise safety, power, belonging to those who require their hope be attached to a person, usually a person of status. But as tyrants gain confidence, they have less need to obscure their evil. They learn they can threaten, insult, and abuse their followers directly and openly, past the point of rebuke. They have become salvation to some sect of the community. And in their terror, who would dare rebuke the rescuer?”
— This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley a.co/11dBkOx
“In each case Jesus describes his work as moving outside of polite and proper limits and boundaries to reunite things that have been marginalized or excluded by society: the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the downtrodden.”
— Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent by Richard Rohr a.co/aZiW5Tg