Weekly roundup

Well, another week has gone by. Last few days have been fairly decent, weather-wise. Nice to see the sun again, after weeks of pretty much non-stop rain!

A friend posted this to Facebook the other day.

There have been some fun things done this week, but first, let's address the elephant in the room: The Supreme Court has issued several rulings. Two of them have been getting a lot of play on the news and social media. 

The first involved the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare". The immediate issue concerned the federal "Healthcare Marketplace". The ACA, as written, passed by Congress, and signed into law, stipulated that individuals without insurance needed to sign up for subsidized healthcare via "Marketplaces" set up and run by the individual states. However, many of the states refused to set up Marketplaces. 

The Federal Government was horrified by this. The ponzi scheme financing of Obamacare required that a majority of citizens to either sign up for insurance or to pay massive fines, to provide the funding for those that couldn't afford unsubsidized insurance.

So, to bring in the required number of "insured" from the non-compliant states, the Federal Marketplace was set up. To begin with, it was a joke. There were huge problems with their software that allowed hackers easy access to very personal information. Fingers were pointed, lower-level people were fired, higher-level people were vilified. Eventually, they managed to get most of the bugs out of the system.

However, this was NOT what the ACA allowed for. The ACA only allowed for the state-run Marketplaces, not a Federal one. The Federal Marketplace was completely outside the scope of the ACA, and of course, lawsuits were filed thick and fast.

The issue finally reached the Supreme Court, and in a stunning blow to the Constitution, they ruled that the Federal Marketplace was legitimate and would be allowed to stand. The bottom line is that the ruling allows the White House to circumvent Congress and rewrite any law that it sees fit, in any way that it sees fit. This was a major step away from representational government and a major step towards tyrannical dictatorship, and all of it by the blessing of the Supremes. This is a very dangerous precedent!

Overshadowing the Obamacare ruling was another ruling a couple of days later, that effectively banned states from enforcing laws against same-sex marriage. Honestly, I saw this one coming a long time ago. 

The majority of the states allow same-sex marriage. The US Constitution requires that the individual states recognize licenses and other things issued by other states. That is why my Missouri Driver's License is valid in all fifty states, for example. And why the marriage license that the Debster and I have, although issued in and solemnized in Missouri, was valid when we lived in Illinois. So this ruling did not come as a major surprise to me. The minority of states that maintained bans against same-sex marriage would have eventually been forced to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. So, it made little sense to keep their bans in place.

One problem, in my opinion, is that once again the Federal Government is dictating to the States what they can and cannot do. This is a violation of the Tenth Amendment, if nothing else. But, it has the blessing of the Supreme Court, and that, as they say, is that.

There is a bright side to this, however. Allen West wrote THIS ARTICLE concerning possible side effects and unintended consequences to this ruling.

The other problem is the moral problem. From my position as a Bible-believing Christian, that is the biggest problem. One that needs to be addressed separately. So stay tuned, my friends!

I want to publicly thank God for the care He took with my dear friend Mary P. Mary's van caught fire the other day, and burned down to a pile of slag. Thanks to some kind and brave strangers, she was extricated from the burning vehicle completely unharmed. God is good!

We had another death in the family this week. Our last remaining cat, Bull, died this past Tuesday. He was just shy of his 14th birthday. This is a photo of him from a few years ago, with his sister Cow, who died in November of 2013.

Now, on to the fun stuff! The Debster and I were blessed to be able to spend today (Sunday), with my grand-nephew Tyler, who just turned seven. 

First, we went to breakfast at Steak-N-Shake. I had the country skillet breakfast, and was only able to eat about half of it. The rest is in the fridge for my breakfast tomorrow. Tyler and the Debster had chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and powdered sugar. Looked awesome, even though I am not a fan of whipped cream.

Then, we went to Lone Elk State Park, and drove through looking at the critters. We only saw one deer, and didn't see any bison at all, unfortunately. But we did come across a large herd of elk!

What a cute calf!

Look at the rack on that bull elk!

From there, we went on to West Tyson County Park. Although Lone Elk is a rather major tourist attraction, the nearby West Tyson park is virtually unknown, tucked away in the hills off the highway outer road. Doesn't even have a marker sign on the highway. But in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful parks in all of the Saint Louis County Park System.

There, I finally managed to get some "dirt time", as my bushcrafting friends call it. Nothing special, but I did get to play with my new Mora knife and Kobalt hand ax. I made a pile of shavings and batoned (split with my knife) a few  branches, and gathered a large bundle of twigs. Built a fire, roasted hot dogs and made s'mores. We all had a blast. Even if it did try to rain on us a couple of times, and the wood was all damp making the fire difficult to get started.

Kobalt hand ax, Mora Classic #3, Buck folding knife

Used the Mora to baton some small branches down to kindling

Spine of the Mora used to scrape dry dust off of inner bark for tinder

Bark, bark dust, shavings, some kindling

Tyler and I roasting hot dogs. Wow. Look at that gut I have. I have GOT to do something about that!

Tyler with his first fire-roasted hot dog

You can see the moisture boiling out the ends of the fuel.

Gidget relaxing next to the Debster while Tyler and I played with fire.

Well, that's enough for this week. Stay tuned, folks!

God bless you all!

Ron and the Debster

Simple pleasures in life

One beautiful summer day some years ago, my best friend and I went fishing along the banks of a creek. While we were wading up and down, casting and so forth, his wife sat on the bank by a series of ripples and shallows. As she bathed her feet in the clear cool water, she tossed in small pieces of bread. She was having a grand old time, just watching the minnows chase around grabbing the bread. Her grin was from ear-to-ear, and often broke into soft chuckles. No, she isn't "a wee bit soft". She simply knows how to take great delight in little things that most people don't even notice.

Although I, unfortunately, do not have the same unbounded capacity for being delighted that she has, there are many things that give me great pleasure.

The love between my wife and our grandson is an awesome delight for me as well as for them. His peels of laughter as he teases his Grandma are infectious. My Debster is buoyed up for days after a visit with the kids. And I take great delight in my wife's pleasure in our grandson. (I love the little guy too, but what they have is really something special.)

I truly enjoy the feel of my ultra-light spinning rig bent double in my hand, the mono-filament line zinging off the reel as a feisty small-mouth bass fights tooth and nail against me. Or should I say, jaw and fin? Whatever. When I have finally landed a fish that weighs two or three times what the line is rated for, I'll be grinning for hours.

I enjoy getting all dirty and muddy, working the soil of my garden in the spring. Tilling in the manure and compost, raking, and planting the seeds. When I get home from work early in the morning after my midnight shift, I have to walk past the garden to get to the house. And to see the little green shoots begin to come up, and knowing that in a few months I'll be harvesting the fruits of my labor, that is a pleasure.

Stopping off on my way home and picking up a bouquet of flowers for my Debster and watching the smile on her face grow and grow, is a pleasure.

The solid feel of a well-bound book in my hands, the crinkle of the pages as I turn them, are a pleasure that can never be duplicated by a digital edition on my smart phone.

I haven't indulged in this one for some time, but I used to really get a kick out of building models of World War Two-era fighter planes. Starting with a basic kit, researching and researching, poring over photos and diagrams of the real planes, matching paint colors, manufacturing from scratch and adding on little detail pieces that turned the simple model kit for ages 8-14, into a virtual miniature of the original, almost a work of art. Sometimes worked on the same model for several weeks until I was satisfied with it. But boy, was I satisfied!

I could go on almost forever, listing things that I find delightful. But I'll leave you with this one:

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 ESV)

As many and varied are the pleasures to be found in daily life, there is nothing sweeter than the Lord Himself. To be totally immersed in His presence, being overcome with awe at His strength and mercy and love and majesty and truthfulness and all the other attributes that He possesses. As the old hymn calls it, the "sweet hour of prayer". Reading and ruminating on His written Word. Worshiping Him along with other saints in a group, or alone in the depths of my heart. Knowing that He loves me, and that the greatest gift He can bestow on me is the gift of Himself.

I don't do this often, but in this case I am going to recommend a book to you:

This book is available at this website: desiringgod.org. It can be downloaded for free as a PDF file, or it can be purchased from Amazon. And, just for the record, I am NOT affiliated with that website and do not receive a penny from them. My only reward is the knowledge that someone will have their life changed by this book, like I did. To say that it gave me a new perspective on the Christian life would be the grossest understatement.

Until next time,
Ron