January 25: Ron's Roundup; Medal of Honor Monday; Verse of the Day

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt departs following an extended visit in the midst of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, from Apra Harbor, Guam May 21, 2020. U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Kaylianna Genier/Handout via REUTERS.

Verse Of The Day,
from BibleGateway.com.

Philippians 4:8 (NASB 1995)
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

Medal of Honor Monday
from Tara Ross
This Day in History: Four Vietnam Heroes receive the Medal of Honor

The Briefing
by Al Mohler

• PART I: 62 Million Babies Have Been Aborted in the U.S. in the 48 Years Since Roe v. Wade: How Did Abortion Become Thinkable in American Culture?
• PART II: President Biden Wants to Codify Roe v. Wade: Abortion as the Central Sacrament of Political Liberalism in the United States
• PART III: Liberal Catholicism in the White House? What Is the Connection Between Liberal Theology and Liberal Political Views?

Why is the West turning a blind eye to persecuted Christians in the global South?
If we ignore the violence in own back yard, how can we see it elsewhere?
by Madeleine Enzlberger

Longtime MLB home run king Hank Aaron dies at 86
My late father was an unabashed baseball junkie, so as a youngster and teenager, I grew up with baseball games on TV or the radio, the sports pages of both of our local daily newspapers, and the occasional magazine. Along with most of America, in 1973 and 1974, I was enthralled by the historic feats of "Hammerin' Hank of the Braves" chasing and then surpassing the career home run record owned by the late great the Sultan of Swat, George Herman "Babe" Ruth. I read Mr. Aaron's autobiography and was almost immeasurably impressed. The world has lost a great man, a member of not only the Baseball Hall of Fame, but of the elite number that have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed. Goodby Hank. You will be missed.

U.S. carrier group enters South China Sea amid Taiwan tensions
A couple of days ago, fighter-bombers from the Communist China mainland overflew Taiwanese airspace, escalating tension between China and Japan. Later that day, The US sent a strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt into the South China Sea, on a routine patrol “to ensure freedom of the seas, build partnerships that foster maritime security”. China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines all have claimed parts of the area as sovereign territory.

Coincidentally, I just finished reading the first four chapters of "2034: A Novel of the Next World War" by Elliot Ackerman  and Admiral James Stavridis USN. "Wired" magazine's current print issue was devoted exclusively to excerpting these chapters. The book itself is due out in March. Here's the review published on Amazon:

"On March 12, 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is on the bridge of her flagship, the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, conducting a routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea when her ship detects an unflagged trawler in clear distress, smoke billowing from its bridge. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell is flying an F35E Lightning over the Strait of Hormuz, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.
"So begins a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral who has spent much of his career strategically out maneuvering America's most tenacious adversaries. Written with a powerful blend of geopolitical sophistication and literary, human empathy, 2034 takes us inside the minds of a global cast of characters--Americans, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Indians--as a series of arrogant miscalculations on all sides leads the world into an intensifying international storm. In the end, China and the United States will have paid a staggering cost, one that forever alters the global balance of power.
"Everything in 2034 is an imaginative extrapolation from present-day facts on the ground combined with the authors' years working at the highest and most classified levels of national security. Sometimes it takes a brilliant work of fiction to illuminate the most dire of warnings: 2034 is all too close at hand, and this cautionary tale presents the reader a dark yet possible future that we must do all we can to avoid."

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