My last blog, “Some Good News For A Change” ended up to be one of my most viewed articles. That in itself was good news, well at least for me, but it showed me that people are hungry for stories that aren’t about doom and gloom. So, I’ve been looking for cool stories that might bring a smile or a sliver of hope to all the people trapped in bizzarro-world. I stumbled across a website called www.goodnewsnetwork.org. I took a brief moment to scan the articles and ran across one in particular that I thought was interesting. The co-founder of Airbnb is donating $25 million to a company that is cleaning up what’s called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the name given to the accumulation of plastic and debris floating around in various places in the north Pacific Ocean. Airbnb received a lot of flak from conservatives and deservedly so, for banning un-vaxxed or people who spread what they deemed “Covid misinformation,” notably Candace Owens, from its rentals. Airbnb is a privately held company and as such reserves the right to serve whomever they wish, but the whole “mis-information” claim they made against Owens has now been so thoroughly debunked, it makes me wonder if they are still doing this. At any rate, this $25 million donation is a good thing, especially in bizzarro world, where up is down, left is right and common sense has taken a vacation. The Good News Network is a great place if you need a story to lift you out of the despair that comes from looking at the latest news.
Another piece of good news is that the Asbury revival I wrote about last week has spread to 4 other universities, Samford University in Alabama, Lee University in Tennessee, Cedar University in Ohio and Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee Oklahoma. Awakenings are spreading to other campuses, notably Baylor and Texas A & M. All of these seem to be happening spontaneously, grassroot movements started by students hungry for spiritual meaning in the midst of bizzarro-worlds constant insanity. So, while the Asbury revival (I like to call it the Asbury Awakening), where in a town of around 6 thousand, over 50,000 people showed up, has stopped after 14 days, the movement is spreading, and that is fantastic. Maybe the pendulum is finally swinging back to normality.
The other day my wife and I went in for eye examinations. It was pretty cool, while she was getting her examination, I went to book one for myself, and lo and behold they had a cancellation so I was able to get mine done the same day. What was interesting was the conversation we had with the optometrist and his staff when we finished. As per usual, we were asked why we left California, and we gave our usual fairly non-political answer, which is California’s high cost of living. We don’t really engage in political discussions because we don’t want to offend anyone who might disagree with us, and although Tarboro seems to be a conservative Bible Belt community, our neighbors have told us that there are a lot of liberal Democrats in town. The conversation turned to politics however and it was sort of eye opening when the doc told us all the patients he has talked to at his practice are conservative. I mentioned the liberal democrat thing I heard, and one of the staff replied that she believes people say that because they are afraid to say how they really feel due to the overall political climate in North Carolina and America as a whole. It’s kind of funny, we’ve been talking to our daughter, trying to convince her and her husband to move to N.C., but she thinks it’s a red state and because she is, shall we say, very “blue” she doesn’t want to live here. N.C. has a Democrat Governor, and while the last election definitely leaned to the right, I wouldn’t call N.C. a red state. It was so refreshing to talk to people that feel the same way my wife and I do. After California, at least in the S.F. North Bay Area, if you dared to voice a conservative opinion, your neighbors would look at you like you were a hostile alien from another planet, it was heartwarming to hear from people who haven’t been brainwashed by the media and the woke mob, good news!
The obvious intent of out media, social, print and TV is to scare the hell out of you. They need to generate outrage. That’s not to say that the stories and issues being raised aren’t worthy of concern and attention, after all it does look like the Biden regime is trying to start WWIII, it’s simply that we need to view all of them from that perspective. You have to keep in mind that you are only hearing the side of a story the provider of that story wants you to hear. I read an article on jonathanturley.org called “Objectivity has got to go.” Turley exposed how objectivity has not only been lost in today’s journalism, but is actively denounced at schools teaching what they describe as journalism. Reporters are now being trained to be activists and anyone who might practice objectivity is accused of “bothsideism.” If there is nothing else in bizzarro-world that shows how far we’ve descended, this is it. The term “bothsideism” is used as a pejorative, denigrating anyone who might want to objectively tell both sides of a story. The case Turley used as an example was the one where an NBC reporter told the truth about John Fetterman’s obvious cognitive difficulties, and was roundly chastised by her peers for doing so. Truth be damned, we’re activist-journalists and we have a duty to tell you our perspective, our opinion, because we’re right and you’re wrong, and if you don’t agree you should be censored! The beauty of this for them is that when they are proven wrong, it doesn’t matter, for them the truth is irrelevant, their opinion, right or wrong is the only thing that matters, so they will never admit when they got a story wrong, because to their way of thinking, their opinions are always correct. That’s why even after the Laptop From Hell was finally admitted to have been Hunter Bidens, some of those 50 “intelligence” officials still think it was the right thing to do to denounce it as probable Russian disinformation, because to admit it was in fact Hunter Biden’s computer would have helped Trump, and Lord knows that most certainly can’t happen, ORANGE MAN, BAD! Have you heard any mea-culpas from CNN over the Laptop From Hell story? No, they just finally admitted that it was in fact Biden’s computer, and let it go at that. I’ve written extensively about the failure of our media to tell the truth. It’s a telling sign that a recent Pew Research poll shows that Democrats trust the media far more than Republicans, this one statistic from the survey I thought was hilarious stated, “among Democrats and democratic leaners, CNN sits at the top, trusted by 2/3rds, (67%)of Democrats.” 53% trust the N.Y. Times, and unbelievably, 56% trust PBS! It explains how they are so misguided, how could anybody trust anything that comes out of CNN. But then again these are the same group of people who when asked what they thought the hospitalization rate was for Covid responded with “around 50%” when it was around 1%. Everything they reported about Russia gate was a wrong. The Hunter Biden Laptop story, Nicholas Sandman, Kyle Rittenhouse, everything about Covid, especially Ivermectin, are just a few examples of the stories they either got totally wrong, or outright lied about, yet despite that, 2/3rds of Democrats still trust them. It makes me think of Colonel Jessup’s famous line in a “A Few Good Men,” “You can’t handle the truth”. So, they keep listening to the lies and propaganda from the likes of CNN, because they can’t handle the truth. I have to admit I kind of do the same thing, whenever I hear either of the 2 Joys, Reid or Behar I cringe and change the channel. The difference is that these two mental midgets have been proven wrong over and over, so why pay attention to someone who is just spouting propagandist nonsense. When you think about it, it boggles the mind, but it shows how conditioned and brainwashed people, especially those on the left have become. That is what happens when objectivity is replaced with political ideology. That is not to say that Faux News is any better. My point is that, obviously allof the major news organizations play fast and loose with the truth, with that in mind, don’t despair when all you read or hear about is doom and gloom, you must always keep in mind that all of these purveyors of putrescence are trying to sell you something, and have no qualms about how they do it. The other thing is, at least for believers in God, is that God is in control. The Lord’s prayer says “Thy will be done.” Humanity wants to think that they can control every thought or action, but that is an illusion, God allows things to transpire, good and bad. One of the things that atheists always point out is that how can a just and merciful God allow evil to exist, and on its surface that is a legitimate question, one I’ve asked myself on many an occasion. We have to keep in mind a few things, first, we are all sinners. A passage in Romans has always summed it up for me, in Romans 3:10-12 it reads, “There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become useless, there is none who does good.” In other words, no one can possibly be perfect, we’re all sinners, we all fall short and therefore are in need of God’s grace and mercy, but are also deserving of God’s wrath for our sins, that is why Christ died on the Cross, the propitiation for our sins. Secondly, as humans we have no idea of what God’s will is, we can guess, but God is what God is, no one can discern the mind of God. Thirdly, we must experience evil in order to appreciate good, in Chinese culture it’s portrayed as Yin and Yang, darkness and light, one can’t exist without the other. I have to trust that no matter what happens, it’s God’s ultimate will, the only thing I can do is have faith and believe. If it’s God’s plan that humanity should be wiped off the face of the planet tomorrow, then I know a far better place awaits me, so there is no sense in worrying about things I cannot control. I certainly don’t want that to transpire, I pray that sanity will return to the warmongers who are trying to start WWIII, and peace will break out, but then again, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. So, I’m going to continue to look for good news, and not get so pessimistic about the bad stories, or at least try too. One thing that happens when all you do is focus on the bad, is that it’s sort of a self-fulfilling mindset, and collectively when everyone is focused on how bad things are, bad things happen. Let’s focus on what’s good, look for good stories, like the Asbury Awakening, look out for each other, be kind to each other. Remember you never know what someone is going through, so if they are acting gruff and grouchy, it could turn out that they are just having a bad day. Don’t be guided by the hate that spews from things or people that don’t give a damn about you, who care only about making a buck off your misery, don’t give them that power. I have a saying that I used when I was a working stiff, “PMA all the way” PMA stands for positive mental attitude. I admit it’s hard to stay positive, especially these days, but the alternative, well it sucks!
In keeping with trying to maintain a PMA, and because I firmly believe that music is life, I wanted to list a few songs that help foster a PMA, and maybe if you are having a bad day might help to make it a bit easier.
1) “Celebrate.” By Rare Earth, when I heard this one, it inspired me to make this list.
2) “Clap” by Yes, off of their “Yes Album” actually it’s a solo acoustic guitar piece by one of my all time favorite players, Steve Howe
3) “Higher” by Sly and The Family Stone. Awesome bass line by Larry Graham I believe. If you can find it, there’s a remake version with Sly and Steven Tyler from Aerosmith that kills.
4) “Days Of Elijah” This is a worship song I’ve played at church a hundred times, awesome song
5) “Rock ‘N Roll Train” By AC/DC. Just plain ol’ rockin’ AC/DC if this tune don’t get your blood moving, nothing will.
Rock On Y’all – PMA all the way, every day!