Today Sarah Bessey announced a new book, a compilation of Rachel Held Evan’s blog posts, titled “Braving The Truth Essential Essays For Reckoning With And Reimagining Faith.” Held Evans, who wrote of her faith deconstruction and reconstruction, died much too soon in 2019.
As bad as the insurrection on January 6, 2021 was, what is worse to me is general apathetic reaction to it from more than half the country. Having grown up in the 70s I can’t help but compare these our current times to back then and the reaction to Watergate, when it was clear to me that there was a line by which citizens believed a President cannot cross and that citizens did not think the President is above the law.
Even more important, back then more members of Congress and the Supreme Court had a backbone no matter party affliation. I imagine today’s Supreme Court would have ruled that Nixon did not have to give up the tape as they view the Supreme Executive as not accountable to any branch of government.
This not a rehearsal and it’s not a drill, it’s real!
Every article I read about the Chicago Cubs’ off season has the same pattern. It basically says, the Cubs have checked in with so and so player to find out their interest. I imagine after every one of those phone calls Jed Hoyer says, “Oh, so and so won’t play for nothing? Oh well” and moves on to the next player on his list. He only makes the calls and tells the press he made the call for the appearance he actually is doing something.
The pattern is the same every single off season to the point to which I think Ricketts and company are insane because they keep expecting a different result. First, there is complete turnover in the bullpen with hope it will pan out in the upcoming season. Never mind that hope is not a strategy.
Next, they find every single player available at the start of the off season to be too expensive. Then with about a month left, which we are now approaching, the Cubs seem to panic, trade away some prospects and sign someone they either don’t need (Dansby Swanson) or have no chance re-signing (Kyle Tucker).
In short, Hoyer manages the Chicago Cubs like he is managing a Fantasy Baseball team. And the real irony in all this is Ricketts thinks he is saving money when in reality he is wasting money.
For Most, Christianity Is A Religion
The problem of Christianity is that like an onion, there are many layers of understanding about it. What started as an adjective associating the way people lived to who they followed became an institution, a religion, a church, and a set of beliefs some equate to being faith.
The Christianity known to perhaps 90% of the world is a religion and the institution founded by the Roman emperor Constantine. A hallmark of religions and institutions is that one can be kicked out of them.
If you have spent any time studying what Jesus taught, does it make sense to you that he would create something from which you could be kicked out from?
Religion is a necessity for and a product of man’s ego, in fact it may be one of the most dangerous things ever created by man. It is often used by Powers and Principalities to control people and to gain wealth.
I think the most enlightened part of the founding of the United States was the recognition through experience by the founders of just how religion is used by people in power, and attempted to wall off the threat of religion in the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The first amendment does not just exist to protect religions from the government but also, and I think most importantly, to protect us from the government using religion to take away liberty.
The Clicks Communicator
I noticed some entries in my RSS feeds this morning making reference to the Blackberry, and I suspect they were in reference to the Clicks Communicator, a new Android-based phone to launch later this year. This is from the company that has been selling a physical keyboard case for the iPhone. The Clicks Communicator has a built-in physical keyboard, hence the reference to Blackberry.
The device software is built on Android 16 with a customized launcher that is optimized for communications. What it looks to me like is the Android notification shade made front and center to the device. It has hardware buttons to initiate voice to text input, if one prefers and has an LED around the primary button that will flash different colors one configures for different notifications. The color LED reminds me of the roller ball of the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1.
The negatives start with the price, while one can reserve one now for a $399 total price by paying $199 to reserve it, the Communicator will retail for $499, which I think is too much for a device being promoted as a second phone. The intro video compares the Communicator to a Kindle as it compares to the iPad, but Kindles cost much less than $499.
Another big miss in my opinion is not providing a removable battery nor Magsafe support, although I imagine this might be something that could be provided via special “cover.” The device includes the things smartphones lost over the years like the physical buttons, storage card slots, and 3.5mm audio adapter, so why not go all the way and provide removable batteries?
The Clicks Communicator is going to be a niche device, it’s not going to take over the smartphone leaders. I got to think that $499 starting price will have to come down to the $300 to $400 range to justify the purchase as an “accessory” to an every day carry smartphone. The question then is, will enough sell for the device to last long enough for the price to come down? The answer depends on whether there is truly a demand for this type of device.
Woke up this morning to the news that the U.S. has illegally invaded in to another country, captured its leader and his wife, and kidnapped them out of their country. I see this as an act of war, no matter the claims of crimes that the leader may have committed. Unfortunately, these events will continue to happen so long as the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) of 2001 is in place. Congress must repeal this blank check it gave to the President for military force. Stop feeding the Military Industrial Complex.
Lots of sunshine today but the temperatures stayed in the twenties.
At The Start Of 2026
Mother Nature set the scene today by providing freshly fallen snow, sunshine, and frigid temperatures, which I take as a sign for a fresh start. Today is not only the start of a new year, but for me it is the start of the fifth chapter of my life, now as a retiree. My most specific plan for now is to savor more of life, to take it in fully and continue to learn and grow.
I have long followed people who seem to be able to spend most of their time on whatever they find to be most fulfilling in the moment and dreamed of that for myself. My intentions for this year are to read more, to write more, to listen to more music, to spend more time with people I love, and to be grateful for every minute.
Year in books for 2025
Here are the books I finished reading in 2025. I fell short of my goal to read 20 books this year, and I am committed to meeting and exceeding that goal in 2026.
