The truth will set you free.
Jesus Christ
It had been years since we were on an airplane. And I’ll admit I was a bit apprehensive after reading about crazies in the once friendly skies and weather issues because we had to fly through Chicago in winter — never a good idea. But there was no other way to reach northwest Arkansas for a family wedding at New Year’s.
These days many of our friends are traveling all over the world. Becky and I traveled extensively throughout our adult life, so we no longer have a need to go somewhere because we’re already there! One of my axioms has always been “Get on a plane, rent a car and you can see the world.” Well, we have. We’re fortunate that all our family lives in Knoxville with the exception of one daughter and her family who live in Oregon. And we’ve discovered it is better to fly the Portland crew here, rather than us traveling there.
As we hustled through Chicago’s O’Hare airport to catch a connecting flight, I imagined us like Kevin’s family in “Home Alone.” We made it to our connecting flight with time to spare as I watched the ground crew repeatedly douse our plane with de-icer to melt three inches of snow on the wings.
Although the world uses the Gregorian calendar, Becky reckons time as BC (before Covid) and AC (after Covid). Our last venture into the not-so-friendly skies was in 2AC or January 2022. Everyone was in masks then. These days you still see people with masks, although numerous scientific studies have shown them to be useless for the aerosolized Covid virus. I suspect the “masked ones” still have faith in Dr. Fauci and identify as Progressive Democrats.
Wearing a mask can retard the spread of coughed and sneezed droplets, and may offer some benefit to others if you have a cold and are forced to travel. And there are people on chemo whose doctor may recommend a mask. However, all the maskers I saw sported heads full of hair, often with rainbow colors. Early in the pandemic, Becky and I were double vaccinated and boosted, yet we each suffered two bouts of Covid. I remain careful, but I trust my common sense and natural immunity more than vaccinations, masks, so-called “experts” or the government.
We made it to the Arkansas wedding and then home to finish the holidays by cheering the Vols to victory with friends on New Year’s Day. So, after Biden’s “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” 2023, it’s time for a turnaround — actually, it’s past time.
As 2024 dawns I’m beginning to see signs of change. Biden and his Democrats can no longer hide from the disasters they’ve created. Nor can the Democrat agitprop media cover for his dementia, our damaged economy and energy sector, his foreign policy debacles and the alien invasion from destruction of the border. Street crime and flash mobs terrorizing businesses, homelessness and drugged zombies, and poop on the streets are hard to hide, although California’s Pomade-Newsom tried to do so before the Chi-coms came to town.
An iconoclast is one who goes against the so-called popular ideas or groupthink. Before there was NEWSMAX, FOX News, X, Rumble, Talk-Radio, TruthSocial, and alternative newspapers like The Knoxville Focus, the only source of information was the elite media. We now understand that the overtly liberal New York Times and the alphabet networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN) manipulated us by controlling the information we were allowed to see. The rise of iconoclastic information sources scares the traditional purveyors of their “truth.”
I’ve come to realize that it is useless to present facts or attempt to reason with the committed left, the thirty-three percent I discussed in last week’s essay. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, I pray for these lost souls to be driven on their knees, but I cannot help them. I also realize I need only encourage the second third of the population who already understand the enemies of America. My job this year is to educate the last third who have been miseducated but are not in a political camp.
The release of the Jeffrey Epstein list of confidants has rekindled my curiosity about this nefarious character. I’m not interested in the prurient aspects of the Lolita Express or his “fantasy island.” However, I am interested in how this apparent nobody without a college education achieved such influence, wealth and power. He may have been selling sex as an enticement, but it seems more likely he was a purveyor of access and information among elites. And I’m interested in whether such influence peddling may have been used to compromise those in power and pose National Security risks.
Have you ever wondered how so many elected leaders repeatedly beat the stock market and become millionaires? Are they smarter than everyone else? I think not. And why would a Ukrainian gas company put a no-nothing, cocaine addict on their managing board of directors? It’s all about information (insider tips) and the trading of access to those in power.
No one can know everyone, but people can become conduits to connect others. The phenomena of influencers might be an analogy but in a connectional sense. Perhaps Jeffrey Epstein connected elites, gathered salacious information along the way and traded this information to achieve even greater access, wealth and power among globalist elites like The Great Reset Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum and our homegrown Washington swamp dwellers. I recently wrote about populism and why outsiders like President Trump are anathema to the elitist cabal of Washington.
Becky’s word for 2024 is “watch.” In other words, pay attention and get informed. And specifically look for opportunities to connect and bless others.
I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions because I can barely keep them beyond a few days or weeks. Some years ago I resolved to offer a word, a note, email or text message of kindness to someone every day. I did OK, but I eventually fell off the kindness wagon. But this year I decided to try again and modify my quest. I resolve to be kind to someone or somewhere speak the truth and resolutely seek the source of truth (God) every day of 2024.
I need this resolution, and my country needs patriots to step up and resist the forces of evil arrayed against His kingdom.
