DLH

Sure, there are practical limits to what we can do, especially when our actions affect others or when they require great amounts of effort, but almost everything we do in life is what we choose to do, bot the good and the bad. So, if you’re not doing what you want to be doing, ask yourself, “why?” It’s very likely only you know the answer.

DLH

The obvious Christian answer is that we repent from our sins of commission and omission, confessing to our God and our fellow people that we continuously fall short of our responsibilities to them. This answer is applicable whether or not we believe in Christ as our savior because of the conviction of our own consciences. The only way to avoid such conviction is if we delude ourselves into believing we are not doing such things at all.

And if such an answer is applicable regardless of what we believe about Christ, then the next question we have to ask is what about Christ? If we know we sin, then we cannot do right by ourselves. If we admit we cannot do right by ourselves, then we understand we need a savior. Christ is that savior, the one who paid the price we could not pay for the things we cannot stop doing wrong.

Christ came to earth with a simple message: love God with all of your heart, mind, and strength and love your fellow people as yourself. Yet, he understood we could not do this ourselves, so he offered something else instead: he would do those things for us and all we have to do is have faith in who he is and why he did it. Even better, he promises to give us that faith because he knows we are not even strong enough to believe on our own.

Lent, then, is a time for us to consider this state of affairs. We have a simple law, so simple that it is heartbreaking to consider how many times we failed at it just today. We are lost and we need rescuing, but we know that a rescuer has already come and offered us redemption from what we have done wrong.

So, if we are sinners in need of a savior and that savior has already come and promised us redemption, then all that remains is to look upon that savior as he presents himself in his word and cry out to him with the words he has already given us to say with the faith he has already given us to save us: “Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.”

Now, knowing that we are already saved, and having concentrated ourselves on the nature of our salvation, we can turn ourselves to living the life of loving God and our fellow people as Christ wants us to live. Repentance becomes liberation, and it is that liberation that Lent prepares us for.

DLH

Historically, things like fasting represented a special activity on the part of faithful people to help them attune themselves spiritually by denying their flesh. This denial was not some sort of special atonement or test to see whether or not it could be done, but a way of sharpening the body and mind so that they could concentrate on the spirit and what lies beyond.

This idea is not some sort of mysticism or new age thinking, but an acknowledgement that our lives consist of far more than what we know and experience through the function of our senses and minds. Our physical world is just one part of an order of existence that stretches from God’s words of creation spoken into the void to this very moment as I write this post. Yet, we lose our connection with this order because we wall ourselves in with our obsessive focus on what we sense and what we know.

Giving up something at Lent, then, should be an effort on our part to sharpen our spiritual awareness in anticipation of the celebration of one of the most spriritual moments in mankind’s history, as Jesus Christ, perfect and innocent, died on our behalf, bearing the punishment for all of the sins of all people in all times, descended into hell to proclaim victory over sin and death, and rose again as the first-born of all those who will receive the Kingdom of Heaven by faith through God’s grace.

By choosing to focus ourselves in this way, we can join our minds and our souls with all Christians in all times and all of the order of existence in praise to our Savior and our God for his gifts of salvation and and faith. In doing so, we move a little closer to the Kingdom: Heaven our goal.

DLH

If you want to use the government to force someone else to pay for or do something you are unwilling to pay for or do yourself, then you are probably wrong.

DLH

Seriously, Democrats seem to be jumping like rats off a sinking ship, with Evan Bayh being the latest incumbent to give up an otherwise safe seat. How can a party have such a solid majority, yet be unable to pass meaningful legislation pulled right from their party platform or to keep reliable incumbents in the Congress?

Unfortunately, these incumbents are leaving vacuums in their place. Both Republicans and Democrats will put up more of the same to contend for those seats, and no one seems to be ready to put up alternatives to the same lame (D) and (R) politics, so instead of voting for something new and better, we’ll be voting for the same lesser evils in November. That is, unless you refuse to and demand something better. There’ still time for that kind of action in this long, cold winter of the Democrat party.

DLH

In a January 29 report, they find that starting in 1990, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began systematically eliminating climate measuring stations in cooler locations around the world. Yes, that’s right. They began eliminating stations that tended to record cooler temperatures and drove up the average measured temperature. The eliminated stations had been in higher latitudes and altitudes, inland areas away from the sea, as well as more rural locations. The drop in the number of weather stations was dramatic, declining from more than 6,000 stations to fewer than 1,500.

Read the whole source article, then I would like someone who still believes in the legitimacy of climate change science to explain to me how this is not what it looks like.

Unless someone can, then I believe the evidence is clear: climate change science, at least how it has been presented to date, is a lie that millions of people have fallen for while ceding their liberty to increased government mandates to fight something that does not exist.

DLH

Somehow, the shroud around the fan that propels the snow into the chute got bent, meaning that the fan jammed against the shroud and the whole assembly ground to a halt.

How do you fix something like that? With a bigger hammer.

Really, using a combination of a come-along and chain to bend the offending part combined with hitting the shroud repeatedly with a sledgehammer NASCAR-style,  I managed to bend the shroud back into some semblance of round so that everything could once again turn freely.

If you’re thinking about farming yourself, make sure you keep a large selection of hammers, sledgehammers, mallets, and crowbars on-hand. I promise you’ll need them.

DLH

PS: As an aside, with the amount of hay forking, sledgehammering, and other arm using activities I’ve been doing lately, I should look like a potbellied Popeye by the spring. Farming is a great workout.

Read more at my Farming weblog...

In this era of ever increasing demand for oil, gargantuan deficit spending, and economic turbulence around the world, the possibility of rampant inflation, shortages, or simple unavailability are very real. The simple and immediate way to prepare yourself from such risks is to begin establishing local networks for the things you need as quickly as possible.

A local network is one where a good or a service comes completely from local sources, at least as much as possible. Such a network uses local raw materials, local labor, and sells the good or service with a primary focus on local customers. While such networks are hard to find in our globalized economy, they do still exist and, more importantly, they spring into existence very quickly when there is a demand.

The first place to look for such networks is at your local farmers’ market. In addition to selling locally produced food, many markets also sell other locally produced goods and services. Beyond the farmers’ market, good places to look for local networks include the downtown business areas of small towns. Another way to establish such networks is to seek out people who you know buy locally and find out where they are buying.

If you are an individual or a business who is a local producer, I want to hear from you. I want to start building local networks by connecting local producers with local consumers through profiles and dedicated websites and publications for that purpose. If you are interested in getting your name out that way, contact me.

DLH

How does a budget for fiscal year 2011 that does not balance even when all spending except Medicare and Social Security are removed reflect a government in tune with national priorities? How does increasing the national debt in by 150 percent in for years make us into a better nation?

While we’re at it, I want someone to tell me again how $5 trillion in one year compares to $1 trillion in eight. How does the Bush spending on Afghanistan and Iraq compare to more than $4 trillion in spending on social programs no one in Washington or anywhere else has any idea how to pay for?

Now, what are you going to do about it? I can guarantee come September or, more likely December or January, our Congress will send a version of the 2011 budget that looks a lot like the one in play now to the President to sign. If you vote for a single one of the people who vote for it, you get what you deserve.

If you’re mad, what are you doing? If you’re not doing, why?

Get to work, people, they’re taking your country away.

DLH