Listen Up!

Attention culture warriors. Here are a few not-to-be-missed articles from recent days.

* “Heavenly Mindedness” (Randy Alcorn, EPM)

* “Meet Donald Trump: The King of Sleaze” (Rebecca Hagelin, Town Hall)

* “The collapse of gender sanity: Waging war on innate sexual difference” (Rachel Lu, Mercator)

* “The Emperor Has No Clue…And His Devotees Couldn’t Care Less” (Derek Hunter, Town Hall)

* “Why So Many Millennials Are Socialists” (Emily Ekins and Joy Pullmann, The Federalist)

* “The Rise of Intolerant Liberals” (Kim Holmes, Daily Signal)

* “Harvard’s dark past as the brain trust of American eugenics” (Michael Cook, BioEdge)

* “Margaret Sanger’s Eugenics Heyday in the Federal Government” (Susan T. Muskett, Mercator)

Dispatches from the Culture Wars

* “New California Law Forces Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers to Advertise Abortions” (Chuck Donovan, Daily Signal)

* “Fearing the ‘G’ Word, the State Department Turns Its Back on Middle Eastern Christians” (Nina Shea, National Review)

* “Trump, Lies, and Bankruptcy” (Kevin D. Williamson, National Review)

* “The Ambassador From Hell?” (Lee Smith, Tablet)

* “The Day the Constitution Died” (Ben Shapiro, Town Hall)

* “FCC commissioner: U.S. tradition of free expression slipping away” (Rudy Takala, Washington Examiner)

* “How Green Is Thy Planet” (Stephen Hayward, Power Line)

Human Rights Start Here

A Few Important Reads

* “Pro-Choicers’ Reaction to Doritos Super Bowl Ad Exposes the Weakness in Their Worldview” (Sarah Rumpf, National Review)

* “Obama at Prayer” (Scott Johnson, Power Line)

* “Millennials heed the siren call of socialism” (Joel Kotkin, Orange County Register)

* “Insurer Obamacare Losses Reach Billions Of Dollars After Two Years” (Bruce Japsen, Forbes)

* “Washington's culture of corruption rots on” (Glenn Reynolds, USA Today)

* “Obama Administration to Oil Companies (and Motorists): Drop Dead” (Steven Hayward, Power Line)

* “A Conservative Senator’s 5 Steps to Fix Congress” (Mike Lee, Daily Signal)

* “Another euthanasia scandal in Belgium” (Michael Cook, BioEdge)

* “Obama bullied bank to pay racial settlement without proof: report” (Paul Sperry, New York Post)

* “The Regrettable Decline of Higher Learning” (Victor Davis Hanson, Town Hall)

Here, Catch This!

Among the best articles of recent days are these:

* “Failure in Cuba” (Editors, Washington Post)

* “DDT Might Have Stopped Zika, But Environmentalists Chose Mosquitoes Over People” (Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine)

* “Public school kisses Valentine's Day goodbye” (Todd Starnes, Fox News)

* “Ex-Spies Say That Clinton’s Illegal Server Triggered Widespread Devastation” (Deroy Murdock, National Review)

* “Soros’ $6 Million For Hillary Speak Volumes” (Editors, Investor’s Business Daily)

* “Immoral Girl Scout Cookies” (Tom Purcell, Town Hall)

* “The Dirty Little Secret of How Teachers Unions Stay in Business” (Evan Grossman, Daily Signal)

* “Tenured Thugs and Thieves” (Kevin D. Willamson, National Review)

Catching Up

Among the excellent articles of the last few days are these:

* “Why I’m Endorsing Ted Cruz For President” (John Hawkins, Town Hall)

* “Pay No Attention to What Planned Parenthood Is Doing Behind the Curtain” (Hans von Spakovsky and Andrew Kloster, Daily Signal)

* “The Iowa Caucus Is Like an Ethanol Subsidy for Iowa Politicians” (Jonah Goldberg, National Review)

* “America’s Economic Freedom Has Rapidly Declined Under Obama” (Anthony B. Kim, Daily Signal)

* “Normalising abortion won’t make it hurt less” (Nicole M. King, Mercator)

“Progressivism Throws Money at Problems. Conservatism Solves Them” (Jim DeMint, Daily Signal)

* “What a Gay Man’s Court Victory Over a Catholic Girls School Means” (Diana Stancy, Daily Signal)

Watchers on the Wall

Here are a few of the not-to-be-missed articles from the last few days:

* “Is Ted Cruz the Answer?” (Lloyd Marcus, American Thinker)

* “Many NYC students so tech-oriented they can’t even sign their own names” (Kirstan Conley, New York Post)

* “The Humbling of the West: Europe and the U.S. bow and scrape to ascendant Iran.” (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal)

* “Obama’s Legacy: Runaway Deficits, Debt And Health Costs” (Editors, Investor’s Business Daily)

* “Does Europe Have a Future?” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

Catching Up

With the weather, football championships, and the observances of the Roe Wade anniversary, you may well have missed these important articles.

No problem. Catch up now.

* “Obama’s Hypocrisy on Religious Freedom” (Melody Wood, Daily Signal)

* “Donald Trump’s ‘Conversion’ Raises Serious Questions” (Dana Loesch, National Review)

* “Christian persecution in 2015” (Marcus Roberts, Mercator)

* “Half million at risk of female genital mutilation in US, says report” (Michael Cook, BioEdge)

* “Wal-Mart: It Came, It Conquered, Now It's Packing Up and Leaving” (Shannon Pettypiece, Bloomberg)

* “A Bad Deal Off to a Worse Start” (Mortimer B. Zuckerman, U.S. News)

The Thanksgiving Jar Project (Video)

In just a couple of minutes, Denny explains an easy, effective, and year-round activity that could dramatically increase your family's gratitude attitude.

Catching Up: A Few Not to Be Missed Articles

* “The morally repugnant response to the Cologne sexual assault gang” (Michael Brendan Dougherty, The Week)

* “Hillary Clinton Tells Planned Parenthood: ‘As Your President, I Will Always Have Your Back’” (Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com)

* “What Obama Got Wrong in the State of the Union” (Rob Kuhlman, Daily Signal)

* “Congressman Will Leave His State of the Union Seat Open for the 57 Million Aborted Babies” (Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com)

* “ObamaCare Enrollment Is Nothing To Brag About” (Editors, Investor’s Business Daily)

* “China arrests most prominent woman rights lawyer for subversion” (Sui-Lee Wee, Reuters)

* “5 National Security Problems You Won’t Hear From Obama’s State of the Union” (Justin Johnson, Daily Signal)

* “The New Way to be Pro-Choice” (Zachary Gappa, Town Hall)

* “Internal Government Emails Reveal Intentions for Contraceptive Mandate” (Carrie Severino, National Review)

* “Which diversity matters? Why do academics fret about racial diversity, but not diversity of thinking?" (J. Budziszewski, Mercator)

The Thanksgiving Jar

In 2015 Claire and I attempted to significantly increase our gratitude attitude by keeping a Thanksgiving Jar on our kitchen counter.  And into that jar we dropped notes throughout the year — notes on which we had jotted down thanks for blessings given us by God. We wrote down encouragements, answers to prayer, deliverances, special moments of beauty and adventure.  You get the idea.

It was a very stimulating way to sharpen our sense of thanksgiving, to reduce complacency and complaining, and to deepen our appreciation of the constancy of constant God’s mercies to us. We started the project as a result of a New Year’s resolution and it turned out to be a niftier spiritual exercise than we had imagined.

We’re doing it again this year. In fact, we started on Thanksgiving Day.

But what of last year’s notes? How did we use them?

Well, they became a delightful new spice to our Christmas celebrations.  Every other night or so, Claire and I sat with cups of tea in the living room, basking in the glow of the Christmas tree lights while we pulled 5 or 6 of the notes at random out of the bowl. (The number of notes had grown so that we dumped them from the Thanksgiving Jar into a large bowl every once in a while.)  We then read through them one at a time and thanked God afresh for each of those blessings. They always stimulated conversation and related prayers as well.  It was very neat.

So there you have it. Perhaps you might consider making a New Year’s resolution to start a Thanksgiving Jar project for you and your family.  It will no doubt help make Thanksgiving a whole-year practice and will also provide an added bounty to your Christmas season.

A Bit of "Spot On" Reading

* “The Tears of a Clown” (Scott Johnson, Power Line)

* “Obama's gun control lies” (Michael Filozof, American Thinker)

* “Two Weaknesses Could Undo the Islamist Movement” (Daniel Pipes, Town Hall)

* “Why Obamacare Is on the Road to Repeal” (Chuck Donovan & Genevieve Plaster, Daily Signal)

* “Middle Eastern Christians Speak Out on Wheaton Professor’s Actions” (James K. Hoffmeier, TGC)

* “Founder of Femen Brazil now makes war on feminism” (Carolyn Moynihan, Mercator)

* “Unappreciated Tax on the Poor” (Walter E. Williams, Town Hall)

* “Proof That Obama Was Wrong About Cuba” (Mike Gonzalez, Daily Signal)

About Those New Year Resolutions

Here are 3 of this past week's radio commentaries dealing with New Year
resolutions. Each KLCV program is just 60 seconds long so you've got time to give them a listen.

“New Year Resolutions? Bah, Humbug!”

“Writing Imprisoned Christians”

“3 Keys to Keeping Your Resolutions”

A Right Start to the New Year

Here's a few enlightening and remarkably relevant articles from the last several days. For culture warriors desiring to start the New Year right,  these make for excellent reading, reflection, resolution...and prayer.

* “Planned Parenthood Says Hiding HIV From Sex Partners Is A ‘Right’” (Kimberly Ells, Federalist)

* “In Denial About Crime” (Heather MacDonald, City Journal)

* “Did Obama Spy On Israel And Congress?” (Editors, Investor’s Business Daily)

* “The Dreaded Seeker-Friendly Church” (Chelsen Vicari, Juicy Ecumenism)

* “EPA Now Says It’s Not to Blame for Gold King Mine Spill” (John-Michael Seibler & Paul J. Larkin Jr., Daily Signal)

* “What Happened to the Conservative Book Club?” (Stephen Hayward, Power Line)

* “C.S. Lewis Was a Secret Government Agent” (Harry Lee Poe, Christianity Today)

* “How Multiculturalism Took Over Comic Books” (Jonathan V. Last, Acculturated)

Ronald Reagan Reads Life of Christ to Children at White House at Christmas in 1982

"The Christmas of the Talking Animals" Is Online

If a quiet 1/2 hour ever comes along in your hectic holiday schedule, you might
enjoy this Christmas short story I wrote several years ago. This is an audio version that KGBI used to play on Christmas morning back in the mists of time.

"The Christmas of the Talking Animals" is a story about a 9-year old boy with a lively imagination who experiences a most remarkable Christmas when he visits his grandpa's Missouri farm in 1952.

I think you'll find "The Christmas of the Talking Animals" a winsome, wholesome story with a very old-fashioned ingredient; namely, a spiritual moral.

For Your Weekend To Do List

Among the things you might like to get to this weekend? 1) Play some Christmas music. 2) Go to church. 3) Saunter over to Divine Truth bookstore (84th & Harrison) from 12-2 on Saturday afternoon where I will be signing copies of my novel "The Christmas Room." And 4) Find time to read these very enlightening articles.

* “A Humble Pre-Christmas Effort to Share My Enthusiasm for the Bible” (David Limbaugh, Town Hall)

* “3 Ways to Guard Your Christmas Witness” (Josh Manley, The Gospel Coalition)

* “7 Reasons To Worry About Our Millennial-Run Future” (Andrew Stiles, Acculturated)

* “Trump Doesn't Represent The Conservative Base” (Jonah Goldberg, Town Hall)

* “America’s Most Dangerous Demagogue Lives in the White House” (David French, National Review)

* “How The Senate Just Changed The Obamacare Debate Forever” (Nicholas Horton, Town Hall)

* “‘We are at war with militant Islam!’ A rookie senator notes what many fear to say” (Andrew Malcom, IBD)

* “Hillary Clinton’s most repugnant lie” (New York Post Editorial Board)

* “Tim Tebow Wins Without Scoring” (Mark Tapson, Acculturated)

Underneath the Tinsel

During these hectic days of Christmas, it's easy to miss important culture war commentary. So to help out, I'll list below links to some of the very best.

* “The ISIS Trail of Death” (Robert Windrem, NBC News)

* “The method behind Obama’s madness…and Trump’s” (John Podhoretz, New York Post)

* “Is Trump Working for Hillary?” (Mona Charen, National Review)

* “5 Facts the Left Isn’t Trumpeting About Paris and Climate Change” (Katie Tubb, Daily Signal)

* “Jerry Brown Lets It All Hang Out” (Stephen Hayward, Power Line)

* “The 8 Most Shocking Things Said at a Planned Parenthood Abortion Rally” Katie Yoder, Lauretta Brown, LifeNews)

* “Squandered Resources on College Education” (Walter E. Williams, Town Hall)

* “Workforce Could Shrink by 2 Million People Because of Obamacare” (Melissa Quinn, Daily Signal)

* “If Not Overnight, When?” (Scott Johnson, Power Line)

Expanding and Enhancing Your Christmas

From years past, here are a few Christmas posts from Vital Signs Blog and The Book Den that you might find helpful in making your Christmas season all that it can be.

* A Whole Season of Christmas -- Why 12 Days Are Much Better than One!

* Christmas Reading Suggestions

* Kids Books for Christmas: A Few Suggestions

* Under Review: The Christmas Room

* Looking for a Good Christmas Movie?

* Christmas Quiz --- Number One

* Christmas Quiz --- Number Two

* Christmas Quiz Number Three

* GKC's "The House of Christmas"

* Will Yours Be a Car Wash Christmas?

* Christmas Conversation Starters

* Where the Christmas Action Is

* The Passing of Christmas

* Christmas Poetry from Tennyson

* "On Going Home for Christmas"

* "Shepherds' Carol" by Norman Nicholson

* Christmas Poems by Leslie Norris

* "The Oxen" by Thomas Hardy

* Another Side of Christmas

* Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas

Spot On! A Few Very Important Reads.

* “Obama Names Hamas Sympathizer as New ISIS Czar” (Debra Heine, PJ Media)

* “President Obama's Imaginary World” (Ben Shapiro, CNS News)

* “Video: Ten of the Dumbest Things Said About the San Bernardino Shootings” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

* “San Bernardino Shooters Unknown: Here Are Some Past Mass Shooters” (Ann Coulter, Human Events)

* “The Left Prays After San Bernardino Shooting, To Its God Of Government”
(Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist)

* “The U.S. Navy Is Slowly Realizing It May Have to Sink Ships Again in the Future” (Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics)

* “A Blow for Gender Ideology — and against the Safety of the American People” (The Editors of National Review)

* “Good Grief! Obama thinks Christmas is about loving tiny trees” (Todd Starnes, Fox News)