In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.'”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.
John: 1:1-5; 9-14
Blogs For Victory 
Awake, oh all, this joyous morn –
for unto us a child is born.
Hark! The heralds blow their horn –
on this joyous Christmas morn.
Soon the sun will rise with dawn –
the sight a jewel to look upon –
one of many precious things –
That rise to hail the newborn King.
Rise! Awake! Love and LIVE –
gifts to loved ones for to give –
for a gift WE have been given –
as the precious SON has risen.
Merry Christmas to all and good morn –
for a blessed child is born –
bless all those around you –
and may love it abound in you.
Merry Christmas to all on this morn.
Merry Christmas Y’all. And best wishes for another safe and prosperous New Year.
Merry Christmas to all.
The sun is filtering through our woods with the temperature on its way to the mid 50’s by this afternoon. Not exactly Christmas weather for northeast Indiana, but nice in its own way. A pan of cinnamon rolls just came out of the oven, and gifts are waiting to be opened. I have a good feeling about the year to come.
Love, peace and joy to all of you. Merry Christmas.
Ah, cinnamon rolls, food for the gods, along with bacon.
I know what you mean about a sense of optimism.
We had hoped to hit 50 degrees but have probably topped out at 40, with a very slight breeze. And yes, I mean a real breeze, not a “Wyoming Breeze” which is about 45 MPH.
After almost a year of chats as we pass on the road, phone calls and texts, my neighbors and I are going to sit down for a meal and a real visit. I’m back and forth to Colorado, he works different shifts, and we have been talking about this for months and are finally going to make it happen.
I had to laugh this morning. On my way to church I had to stop to let a large flock of wild turkeys wander across the street in the little town where I go to shop and attend services. And it’s no big deal. Wait for the antelope herd to cross the dirt road on my way to the highway, watch for deer along the side of the road, look for a glimpse of the elk in the creek bed, give turkeys the right of way—-it’s a good life.
Just wish I had some of those cinnamon rolls……
We topped out at 55, no wind and lots of sunshine. It’s been a while since we had such a nice Christmas.
Our wild Turkey flock, around 18 at last count, has disappeared for the second winter in a row. Our theory is that they’re holed up in a 20 acre woods about a quarter mile to the south of us. The woods, consisting of a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees was planted in the mid 90’s as part of an Indiana Arbor Foundation project. The trees are now 20 to 30 feet tall, and it’s so dense it’s almost impossible to walk through. Makes a great sanctuary for all kinds of wild critters. Our deer, which have been nearly invisible since early fall, now seem to realize that hunting season is over, and we had 7 at our feeder last night. All our antelope and elk moved to Wyoming.
A good life indeed.
I was looking for something on YouTube and saw a video titled: When was Jesus REALLY born? My initial thought was this is probably about some misplaced logic to come to a self-made prophecy, but started watching anyway to see. Turns out, the author has what appears to be, strong revelations about various things to that point to a specific date Jesus was born, and it’s not December 25.
Since the first video peaked my interest, there was another video by the same person that talks about the end of times.
that I found even more intriguing. I’d be interested to hear what you think.
If any of that interest you, this should as well as he talks about how he started and some interesting things about both Obama and Donald Trump.
That link didn’t work
As the Holiday winds down, the hysteria ramps back up on the Left. Here’s a recent exchange on CNN:
BRIANNA KEILAR: I wonder how concerned you are that Putin was able to influence not just through sort of Russian meddling and trying to persuade voters or Americans, but actually to influence the president in a way that has him picking what Putin is saying over his own intel community.
REP. NORMA TORRES: I think after the 2016 elections, the gloves were really off when it came to Vladimir Putin’s influence with President Trump and the GOP. Because let’s not forget, the GOP continues to parrot not only on the floor but also going onto FOX News, all of the things, the lies that Putin continues to spread, blaming and deflecting everyone else on his interference in our U.S. elections.
KEILAR: Why do you think the president was such an easy target for Putin here?
TORRES: I am afraid that Vladimir Putin may have something on the president. And it is the reason why the president has continued to play the handmaid to Vladimir Putin, inviting him to the White House and opening the doors and not having any advisers present, taking the notes from the interpreter and continuing to talk to him and continuing to parrot everything that he tells him.
And in the next segment they criticized the “civility” in our country. Just another day in the insane world of the Democrat Party and their communications firms. Nothing to see here
I wonder how concerned you are that Putin was able to influence not just through sort of Russian meddling and trying to persuade voters or Americans, but actually to influence the president in a way that has him picking what Putin is saying over his own intel community.
The Russians have been meddling in our affairs for as long as I can remember. I’d be shocked if we don’t meddle in theirs. If the entire truth ever comes out (and I’m not holding my breath) I think it will show that Russian meddling in the 2016 election was minimal, certainly in terms of changing any votes. As for Trump believing Putin over his own intel community, that’s a little more complicated. I think mostly it’s just Trump flattering his adversaries, a tactic he’s used over and over in the last 3 years, while simultaneously upping sanctions on those adversaries — or giving their intended targets military weapons as in the case of Ukraine. But the second part of that is that Trump doesn’t have a great deal of trust in his intel community. Even though Brennan and Clapper are no longer there, they left behind a lot of embedded career people who don’t have Trump’s or the country’s best interests at heart.
If you want to know what the Left is doing (or has already done), all you have to do is look at their accusations. They have projection down to an art form. Remember “tell Vladimer I’ll have more flexibility after the election?” Flexibility for what? To allow the Russians to invade Crimea? To not stand in the way of gradual encroachment on the rest of Ukraine? Maybe Obama should have been impeached. Just sayin’.
I’m about halfway through an audio book version of “A Very Expensive Poison”. From a review of the book:
(The author) … shows how Litvinenko’s murder foreshadowed the killings of other Kremlin critics, from Washington, DC, to Moscow, and how these are tied to Russia’s current misadventures in Ukraine and Syria. In doing so, he becomes a target himself and unearths a chain of corruption and death leading straight to Vladimir Putin. From his investigations of the downing of flight MH17 to the Panama Papers, Harding sheds a terrifying light on Russia’s fracturing relationship with the West.
Litvinenko was a harsh critic of Putin who escaped from Russia, became a British citizen, and was then poisoned by a Russian agent who dropped pelonium into his tea in a London hotel.
While the story of the poisoning is interesting, because of the recent focus on the politics of Ukraine I paid special attention to the mentions of Russia/Ukraine conflicts, especially the poisoning of the Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
So, in what will no doubt be a typically futile effort to inject some rationality, linear thinking and common sense into the freakout about Trump: Russia has had ongoing conflicts with Ukraine and was seriously implicated in an effort to poison the man who became president of Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine and put the nation in danger of being conquered while the United States during the Obama regime not only stood by and refused to help but openly promoted a stronger relationship with Vladimir Putin including a promise to “be more flexible” once the reelection effort was over. Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, filmed an awkward and embarrassing effort to publicly kiss the rear end of the bear in her infamous “RESET button” fiasco. Under Obama, approximately 20% of America’s rare uranium deposits were sold to Russia. Under Obama, a known Leftist, both Secretaries of State openly promoted and engaged in cozy relationships with Russia, often enriching themselves personally along the way, and enabling Russia-backed enemies of the United States in their own efforts to become stronger and more powerfully armed. (think of pallets of American dollars delivered to an Iranian airfield)
Then Donald Trump was elected and he engaged in two efforts directly contrary to the agenda of Putin: He reinstated economic sanctions and he started arming Ukraine with lethal weapons allowing it to defend itself against Russian aggression. He went after enemies of the United States, many of them suspected of being supported by Russian aid.
Only the insanity of the Left can flip this narrative upside down, turn it inside out, and come up with a conclusion that it is TRUMP who is marching to the beat of Russian drums, it is TRUMP who is colluding with Putin to advance Putin’s agendas in the West.
But that’s not all: American legal authorities have determined that Russia “meddled” in the 2016 election, but have coyly refused to define “meddling”, though there have been a couple of reluctant admissions that nothing Russia did actually changed the vote, and that Russia spent a small amount of money to infiltrate the Internet with bots placing messages designed to stir up emotions.
They also refuse to address the fact that these bot efforts targeted both the Democrat and Republican candidates.
There have been fleeting and reluctant admissions that the Russian meddling was designed not to get any one candidate elected, but to create internal conflicts within the United States in an effort to destabilize our society. In this, Russia has been remarkably successful, but only due to the eager and ongoing cooperation of the American Left. If there is any element of American society or government actually doing the bidding of Putin and promoting his agenda, it is the Democrat Party as it relentlessly works to spread lies, undermine our rule of law, and create internal conflicts which divide the nation and turn those divided elements against each other.
And as I have pointed out, if Russia’s goal was to destabilize the country by fragmenting its population in conflicting factions working to elect a Democrat would not accomplish this, because when a Democrat is elected the Republicans merely step back, regroup and try to strengthen our positions for the next elections. Only electing a Republican would accomplish the goals of the Left, as only this would result in protests, demonstrations, riots and of course the bizarre cooperation of the Democrat side of Congress in trying to mount a political coup and unseat an elected president—while working overtime, aided by its lapdog complicit media, to do literally everything and anything possible to splinter the nation into warring factions. While there is no evidence, much less proof, that Russia advocated for a Trump victory, only a Trump victory could have delivered the goods the left needs to advance—that is, a destabilized nation wracked by internal conflict and distrust. This is literally the only thing that could indicate a possible Russian advocacy of a Trump victory, weighed against the historical advantages to Russia of a relationship with the Democrats and particularly with Hillary Clinton.
Again, only the Left can use a mirror image of reality as the foundation of its rhetoric and efforts.
Let’s bring in the New Year with a smile. In this case, just get over your squeamishness about laughing at the impaired, read the comments and smile.
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/12/26/illinois-congressional-candidate-and-democratic-socialist-of-america-if-billionaires-didnt-exist-poverty-wouldnt-either/
My favorites:
“Show your work”
“If homes didn’t exist then homelessness wouldn’t exist. Did I do it right?”
“If triangles didn’t exist, neither would Thursday.”
VDH nails it again:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/12/25/these-former-intelligence-chiefs-fit-perfectly-into-our-media-advocacy-culture
The other day Mark Steyn, standing in for Rush, had a great caller who made an excellent point:
You can vote yourself into Socialism but you’ll have to shoot your way out
I keep talking about making bumper stickers, but that one is so good I have to do it. That and:
Investigating Democrat corruption is an impeachable offense
You can vote yourself into Socialism but you’ll have to shoot your way out
Love that saying … in other news:
In a revealing recent interview with Rolling Stone, Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” discusses what led him to begin approaching Republicans and others on “the right” with more skepticism and reporting on their claims in a less “naive” way than he had in the past. In his comments, Todd indicates that he does not view Democrats and their claims in the same skeptical light.
And no one was surprised. That’s the current state of our “media”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/nbcs-chuck-todd-explains-why-hes-changed-how-he-reports-on-republicans?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=benshapiro